CoveOps Reports
by JuliaDaughterOfAthena
Summary: While sitting in their room, Macey discovers 4 journals. Cammie's Covert Operations journals. Gathering a few others they sit down and read and hope to find where Cammie might have ran to. Takes Place during GG5. Some spoilers for the series. R&R please! Note: PenName change! I was XSoftballxIsxMyxLifeX now I am JuliaDaughterOfAthena
1. Chapter 1

**Hello Everybody,  
Just wanted to let everyone know that no matter how much I dream I do not own any of the characters or stories of the Gallagher Girls Books**

* * *

While everyone was at dinner, all Macey McHenry could do was sit in the room she shared with her three best friends in the world, (Only two of which where actually in the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. aka Spy school.) and stare blankly at the empty, and freshly made bed, of Cameron Morgan. Only two weeks ago did she find out the Cammie had ran away from the Gallagher Academy to pursue the mission that her father never returned from.

Slowly Macey moved her eyes from the bed and something on the bookshelf behind the bed, caught her eye. It was a set of books that where completely different from the rest. Completely curious she took the four books off the shelf and realized that they weren't books, that they were actually journals. Cammie's CovOpps Journals that she occasionally saw Cam writing in. Opening the cover of the Blue journal **(Blue was the color of the first GG book in America)** She read the words _Covert Operations Journal: By, Operative Morgan.  
_

Just as she was about to read further, Rebecca Baxter and Elizabeth Sutton walked through the door. "What you got there?" Liz asks. "Cammie's CovOpps Journals." Macey answered. "Let's read them!" Bex shouts, like a kid on Christmas morning. "I agree but we should get Headmistress Morgan and Abby to read them too. They could give us some clue to where Cam might be."

Five minuted later Macey, Bex, Liz, Rachel Morgan, and Abigail Cameron were all sitting in the girl dorm. "Ok now what was SO important you dragged us in here for?" Abby asked "Macey found Cam's journals from the past four semesters, we thought they might give us some clues and we thought we thought we should read them!" Bex said. "Ok... why not, but I think one person is missing." Mrs. Morgan says. "Who?" Liz asks. "Zach." Macey, Bex, Abby, and Rachel say at the same time.

After finally finding Zach they all sat down and Macey picked up the first book and began to read...

**Chapter One.**

**I suppose a lot of teenage girls feel invisible sometimes, like they just disappear. Well, that's me-Cammie t****he Chameleon.**

Everyone in the room just rolls their eyes at her first two sentences.

**But I'm luckier than most because, at my school, that's considered cool.**

"Yah 'cause we are super awesome spies!" The three Gallagher Girls yell** (Bex, Liz, and Macey)  
**

** I go to a school for spies. Of course, technically the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is a school for _geniuses_-not _ spies-_and we're free to pursue any career that befits our exceptional educations.**

"It's True." Rachel said, all sophistic like.  
The only response to her comment was a roll of the eyes from Abby.

**But when a school tells you that, and then teaches you things like advanced encryption and fourteen different language, it's kind of like big tobacco telling kids not to smoke;**

Everyone bursts out laughing at the comparison. But the laughter quickly dies out.

** so all of us Gallagher Girls know lip service when we hear it. Even my mom rolls her eyes but doesn't correct me when I call it spy school, and she's the headmistress. Of course, she's also a retired CIA operative,**

"Of course!" Zach says sarcastically. Surprising everyone else in the room. They had forgot he was even there.

** and it was her idea for me to write this, my first Covert Operations Report, to summarize what happened last semester. She's always telling** **us ****that the worst part of the spy life isn't the danger-It's the paperwork.**

"It's true." Abby and Rachel say. Haven been on hundreds of missions before and have personal experience with tons of paperwork!**  
**

** After all, when your on a plane home from Istanbul with a nuclear warhead in a hatbox, the last thing you want to do is write a report about it. So that's why I'm writing this-for the practice. If you've got a Level Four clearance or higher**,** you probable know all about us Gallagher Girls, since we've been around for more than a hundred years (the school, not me-I'll turn sixteen next month!). **

Another small amount of chuckles.

**But if you don't have that kind of clearance, then you probably think we're just an urban spy myth-like jet packs and invisibility suits-and you drive by our ivy-covered walls, look at our gorgeous mansion and manicures grounds, and assume, like everyone else, that the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women is just a snooty boarding school for bored heiresses with no place else to go. Well, to tell you the truth, we're totally fine with that- It's one of the reasons no one in the town of Roseville, Virginia, thought twice about the long line of limousines that brought my classmates back to campus last September.**

"It really is the perfect cover!"  
"It really is when we first watched a video about the academy, I totally thought it was a rich snob school!" Zach replies**  
**

** I watched from a window seat on the third floor of the mansion as the cars materialized out of the blankets of green foliage and turn through the towering wrought-iron gates. The half-mile-long driveway curved through the hills, looking as harmless as Dorothy's yellow brick road, not giving a clue that it's equipped with laser beams that read tire treads and sensors that check for explosives, and one entire section that can open up and swallow a truck whole.**

"Wow!" The three girls say impressed**  
**

** (If you think that's dangerous, don't even get me started about the pond!) I wrapped my arms around my knees and stared through the window's wavy glass. The red velvet curtains were drawn around the tiny alcove, and I was enveloped by an odd sense of peace, knowing that in twenty minutes, the halls were going to be crowded; music was going to be blaring; and I was going to go from being an only child to one of a hundred sisters, so I knew to savor the silence while it lasted.**

"Quite can be an advantage and a disadvantage." Abby says, like the perfect spy.**  
**

** Then, as if to prove my point, a loud blast and the smell of burning hair came floating up the main stairs from the second-floor Hall of History, **

Everyone who has been at the school long enough to know what happens when you touch the sword, laughs. Zach only looks confused.**  
**

**followed by Professor Buckingham's distinguished voice crying "Girls! I told you not to touch that!" The smell got worse, and one of the seventh graders was probably still on fire,**

"On fire?" Zach asks but no one answers him**  
**

** because Professor Buckingham yelled, "Stand still. Stand still, I say!" Then Professor Buckingham said some French swear words that the seventh graders probably wouldn't understand for three semesters, and I remembered how every year during new student orientation one of the newbies will get cocky and try to show off by grabbing the sword Gillian Gallagher used to slay the guy who was going to kill Abraham Lincoln- The first guy, that is.**

Everyones face darkens at the mention of Ioseph Cavan.**  
**

** The one you never hear about. But what the newbies aren't told on their campus tour is that Gilly's sword is charged with enough electricity to...well...light your hair on fire.**

"Oohhh! That's why!" Zach says  
"Why what?" Bex asks  
"When we first got here, Grant tried to touch the sword and a senior told him 'Not a smart idea' and just walked off."  
"Of course Grant would try to touch the sword!" Macey says, "I'm surprised he didn't ignore her and grab the sword anyway!"**  
**

** I just love the start of school.**

More laughter.

**I think our room used to be an attic, once upon a time. It has these cool dormers and oddly shaped windows and lots of little nooks and crannies where a girl can sit with her back against the wall and listen to the thundering feet and sequels of hello that are pretty standard at boarding schools everywhere on the first day after summer break (but they probably stop being standard when they take place in Portuguese and Farsi). **

"Yup, that's when it starts to stop being standard," Liz laughs.**  
**

**Out in the hall, Kim Lee was talking about her summer in Singapore; and Tina Walters was declaring that "Cairo was super cool. Johannesburg- not so much," which is exactly what my mom had said when I complained about how Tina's Parents were taking her to Africa over the summer whereas _I_ was going to have to visit my dad's parents on their ranch in Nebraska- an experience I'm fairly sure will never help me break out of an enemy interrogation facility or disarm a dirty arm a dirty bomb.**

"It teaches patients, which every spy needs," Rachel says. "Cough, Abby, Cough" That gets some more giggles from the room.**  
**

** "Hey, where's Cammie?" Tina asked, but I wasn't about to leave my room until I could come up with a fish story to match the international exploits of my classmates, seventy percent of whom are the daughters of current or former government operatives-aka spies. Even Courtney Bauer had spent a week in Paris, and _her_ parents are both optometrists, so you can see why I wasn't especially eager to admit that I'd spent three months plopped down right in the middle of North America, cleaning fish.**

"She fishes when she goes there?" Macey asks.  
"Yah, she's mentioned a couple of times, she said she's pretty good at it." Bex says.**  
**

** I'd finally decided to tell them about the time I was experimenting with average household items that can be used as weapons and accidentally decapitated a scarecrow (who knew knitting needles could do that kind of damage?),**

"Well she didn't tell me that!" Bex pouts  
"You weren't there when she told people!" Liz replies

** when I heard the distinctive thud of luggage crashing into a wall and a sort, Southern, "Oh, Cammie...come out, come out, wherever you are." I peered around the corner and saw Liz posing in the doorway trying to look like Miss Alabama, but bearing a greater resemblance to a toothpick in capri pants and flip-flops. A very _red_ toothpick.**

Lot's of laughter.  
"A-red-toothpick!" Macey says between giggles.  
"Don't forget a toothpick in capri pants!" Bex adds.  
"Shut up guys!" Liz said a small blush creeping onto her cheeks.  
"We're just joking around with you!" Macey said.**  
**

** She smiled and said, "Did you miss me?" Well I _did_ miss her, but I was totally afraid to hug her. "What happened to you?" Liz rolled her eyes and just said, "Don't fall asleep by a pool in Alabama," as if she should have known better-which she totally should have.**

"Don't have to be mean about it," Liz mumbles.**  
**

** I mean, we're all technically geniuses and everything, but at age nine, Liz had the highest score on the third-grade achievement tests _ever_. The government keeps track of that kind of think, so the summer before seventh grade, her paents got a visit from some big guys in dark suits and three months later, Liz was a Gallagher Girl- just not the kill-a-man-with-her-bare-hands variety.**

"Awww, Lizzie don't put yourself down, not everyone in the world is as amazingly as me!" Bex says**.  
**

** If I'm ever on a mission, I want Bex beside me and Liz far, far away, with about a dozen computers and a chessboard-a fact I couldn't help but remember when Liz tried to fling her suitcase onto the bed, but missed and ended up knocking over a bookcase demolishing my stereo and flattening a perfectly-scaled replica of DNA that I'd made out of paper-mache in eight grade.**

"That explains why there was never any music playing in our room," Macey says.**  
**

** "Oopsy daisy," Liz said, throwing her hand to her mouth. Sure she knows cuss words in fourteen different languages, but when faced with a minor catastrophe, Liz says _oopsy daisy._**

"I just don't like swearing."**  
**

**At that point I didn't care how sunburned she was-I had to hug my friend. At six thirty exactly, we were in our uniforms, sliding our hands over the smooth mahogany banisters, and descending down the staircase that spiral gracefully to the foyer floor. Everyone was laughing (turns out my knitting needle story was a big hit), but Liz and I kept looking toward the door in the center of the atrium below.**

Most people in the room look confused but Liz remembers why they were looking at the doors**  
**

** "Maybe there was trouble with the plane?" Liz whispered. "Or customs? Or... I'm sure she's just late." I nodded and continued glancing down at the foyer as if, on cue, Bex was going to bust through the doors. But they stayed closed, and Liz's voice got squeakier as she asked, "Did you hear from her? I didn't hear from her. Why didn't we hear from her?"**

"Awww, nice to know you care," Bex says with an puppy dog face.**  
**"'Course I do, you are my best friend!" Liz replies**  
**"Excuse me...?" Macey asks.  
"One of my best friends," Liz corrects herself**  
**

** Well, I would have been surprised if we _had_ heard from her, to tell you the truth. As soon as Bex had told us that both her mom and her dad were taking a leave of absence to spend the summer with her, I know she wasn't going to be much of a pen pal. Leave it to Liz to come to a complete ****different conclusion.**

"Yah that was one of my better summers, when I didn't have to stay alone in our house for weeks," Bex says with a soft smile.******  
**

****** "Oh my gosh, what if she dropped out?" Liz cranked up the worry in her voice. "Did she get _kicked_ out?" "Why would you think that?" "Well..." she said, stumbling over the obvious, "Bex always has been kind of _rules-optional."_**

"Hey, There's nothing wrong with that!" Abby and Bex say  
"Sure there isn't," Zach says.******  
**

******Liz shrugged, and, sadly, I couldn't disagree. "And why else would she be late? Gallagher Girls are never late! Cammie, you know something, don't you? You've got to know_ something!" _Times like this are when its no fun being the headmistress's daughter, because A) it's totally annoying when people think I'm in a loop I'm not in, and B) people always assume I'm in partnership with the staff, which really I'm not. Sure, I have private dinners with my mom on Sunday nights, and sometimes she leaves me alone in her office for five seconds, but that's it. Whenever school is in session, I'm just another Gallagher Girl (except for being the girl to whom the aforementioned A and B apply).**

"I never knew she hated me as her headmistress," Rachel jokes. She knew that it annoyed Cammie when people ask her about whats happening over the semester.******  
**

****** I looked back down at the front doors, then turned to Liz. "I bet she's just late,"**

"Or maybe I was on a plane with a certain CoveOps teacher," Bex says mysteriously.******  
**

****** I said, praying that there would be a pop quiz over supper (nothing distracts Liz faster than a pop quiz).**

"So true!" Macey, Bex, and Zach say in a sing-song voice.  
"... Yah, it is!" Liz says with a smile.****

****** As we approached the massive, open doors of the Grand Hall, where Gilly Gallagher supposedly killed a man at her own cotillion, I involuntarily glanced up at the electronic screen that read "English-American" even though I knew always talk in our own language and accents for the welcome-back dinner. Our mealtime conversations wouldn't be taking place in "Chinese-Mandarin" for at least a week, I hoped.**

"Remember that one year, when the sign broke, and we had to speak Russian at the beginning of the term!" Abby laughs  
"Yah, and all you could say was 'Hi, how are you' and 'Im fine, thank you' Rachel says.******  
**

****** We settled at out usual table in the Grand Hall, and I finally felt at home. Of course, I'd actually been back for three weeks, but my only company had been the newbies and the staff. The only thing worse than being the only upperclassman in a mansion full of seventh graders is hanging out in the teachers' lounge watching your Ancient Languages professor put drops in the ears if the world's foremost authority on data encryption while he swears he'll never go scuba diving again.**

"EEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" Liz, Macey, and Bex shout  
"Really didn't need that mental picture!" Abby exclaims in disgust  
"So very creepy," Rachel says.  
"Now that's just gross," Zach says.******  
**

****** (Ew, mental picture of Mr. Moscowitz in a wet suit! Gross!) Since a girl can only read so many back issues of _Espionage Today_, I usually spend those pre-semester days wandering around the mansion, discovering hidden compartments and secret passageways that are at least a hundred years old and haven't seen a good dusting in about that long.**

"Yup, that will explain all the stains on her blouses and skirts." Rachel says, even though she already knew where they came from.******  
**

****** Mostly, I tried to spend time with my mom, but she'd been super busy and totally distracted.**

"Tut, tut, Rachel," Abby says in a disapproving tone. "You really should have spent time with your daughter."******  
**

****** Remembering this now, I thought about Bex's mysterious absence and suddenly began to worry that maybe Liz had been onto something. Then Anna Fetterman squeezed onto the bench next to Liz and asked, "Have you seen it? Did you look?" Anna was holding a blue slip of paper that instantly dissolves when you put it in your mouth.**

"Evapopaper!" Bex shouts.  
Gaining a small amount of laughter from Abby, Liz, and Macey.  
****

****** (Even though it _looks_ like it will taste like cotton candy, it doesn't-trust me!) I don't know why they always put our class schedules on Evapopaper**

"You know... I honestly don't know why either," Liz says  
"Me too," Bex adds. They both look at Mrs. Morgan.  
"I don't know either... Patricia prints the schedules."******  
**

******-probably so we can use up our stash of the bad-tasting kind and move on to the good stuff, like mint chocolate chip. But Anna wasn't thinking about Evapopaper flavor when she yelled, "We have Covert Operations!" She sounded absolutely terrified, and I remembered that she was probably the only Gallagher Girl that Liz could take in a fist fight. I looked at Liz, and even _she_ rolled her eyes at Anna's hysterics. After all, everyone knows sophomore year is the first time we get to do anything that even approaches actual fieldwork. It's our first exposure to _real_ spy stuff, but Anna seemed to be forgetting that the class itself was, sadly, kind of a cakewalk.**

Zach looks totally confused. "I thought Joe was teaching, how is his teaching a cakewalk?"  
"Mr. Solomon didn't start teaching until the year Cammie wrote this," Bex explains.******  
**

******"I'm pretty sure we can handle it," Liz soothed, prying the paper from Anna's frail hands. "all Buckingham does is tell horror stories about all the stuff she saw in Worlds War Two and show slides, remember? Ever since she broke her hip she's-" "But Buckingham is out!" Anna exclaimed, and _this_ got my attention,******** I'm sure I stared at her for a second or two before saying** "Professor Buckingham is still here, Anna," not adding that I'd spent half the morning coaxing Onyx, her cat, down from the top shelf of the staff library. "That's got to be a start-of-school rumor.

"Plenty of those!" Macey exclaims******  
**

******"There were always plenty of those-like how some girl got kidnapped by terrorist, or one of the staff members won a hundred grand on _Wheel of Fortune_. (Though now that I think about it, that one was actually true.) **

"Wow, how ironic," Zach says sarcastically.******  
**

******"No," Anna said. "You don't understand. Buckingham's doing some kind of semiretirement thing. She's gonna do orientation and acclimation for the newbies-but that's it. She's not teaching anymore." Wordlessly, out heads turned, and we counted seats at the staff table. Sure enough, there was an extra chair. "Then who's teaching CoveOps?" I asked. Just then a loud murmur rippled through the enormous room as my mom strolled through the doors at the back of the hall, fallowed by all the usual suspects- The twenty teachers I'd been looking at and learning from for the past three years. Twenty teachers. Twenty-one chairs. I know I'm the genius, but you do the math.**

More laughter. But it was more of a 'wow I miss her' laugh than a 'she's so funny' laugh.******  
**

****** Liz, Anna, and I all looked at each other, then back at the staff table as we ran through the faces, trying to comprehend that extra chair. One face _was_ new but we were expecting that, because Professor Smith always returns from summer vacation with a whole new look-literally. His nose was larger, his ears more prominent, and a small mole had been added to his left temple,**

"That's a little creepy..." Liz says.  
"I agree.. at least it's every year, not after every break," Bex says.

****** disguising what he claimed was the most wanted face on three continents. Rumor has it he's wanted by gun smugglers in the Middle East, ex-KGB hit men in Eastern Europe, and a very upset ex-wife somewhere in Brazil.**

"Wow, he should run..." Zach says.  
"And why is that?" Abby asks  
"No reason!" Zach has a scared look on his face.******  
**

****** Sure, all this experience makes him a great Countries of the World (COW) professor, but the best thing Professor Smith brings to the Gallagher Academy is the annual anticipation of guessing what face he will assume in order to enjoy his summer break. He hasn't comeback as a woman yet, but it's probably just a matter of time.**

More chuckles because the girls remember joking about what he would look like as a woman.******  
**

****** The teachers took their seats, but _the chair_ stayed empty as my mother took her place at the podium in the center of the long head table. "Women of the Gallagher Academy, who comes here?" she asked.**

Just as Abby was opening her mouth to answer the question Macey cut her off saying, "If everyone keeps commenting we will never get past the first chapter!"******  
**

****** Just then every girl at every table (even the newbies) stood and said in unison, "We are the sisters of Gillian." "Why do you come?" my mother asked. "To learn her skills. Honor her sword. And keep her secrets." "To what end do you work?" "To the cause of justice and light." "How long will you strive?" "For all the days of our lives." We finished, and I felt a little like a character on one of my grandma's soap operas. We sat down, but Mom remained standing. "Welcome back, students," she said, beaming. "This is going to be a wonderful year here at the Gallagher Academy. For our newest members"-she turned to the table of seventh graders, who seemed to shiver under her intense gaze**

"Yup, that seals it... you are scarey," Abby says teasing her sister.  
"Whatever Abby, you know I'm cooler than you," Rachel jokes back.******  
**

******-"welcome. You are about to begin the most challenging year of your young lives. Rest assured that you would not have been given this challenge were you not up to it. To our returning students, this ear _will_ mark many changes." She glanced at her colleagues and seemed to ponder something before turning back to face us. "We have come to a time when-" But before she could finish, the doors flew open, and not even three years of training at spy school prepared me for what I saw. Before I say any more, I should probably remind you that I GO TO A GIRL'S SCHOOL**

"No need to shout Macey," Zach says rubbing his ear.  
"Well it's in all capital letters, so it's meant to be shouted," Macey replies smugly.******  
**

******- that's _all_ girls, _all_ the time, with a few ear-drop-needing, plastic-surgery-getting male faculty members thrown in for good measure. But when we turned around we saw a man walking in our midst who would have made James Bond feel insecure. Indiana Jones would have looked like a mamma's boy compared to the man in the leather jacket with two day's growth of beard**

"That's a funny way to describe him!" Abby laughs.******  
**

****** who walked to where my mother stood and then-horror of horrors-winked at her.**

"The horror!" Bex and Liz shout.******  
**

****** "Sorry I'm late," he said as he slid into the empty chair. His presence was so unprecedented, so surreal, that I didn't even realize Bex had squeezed onto the bench between Liz and Anna, and I had to do a double take when I saw her, and remembered that five seconds before she'd been MIA. "Trouble, ladies?" she asked. "Where have you been?" Liz demanded. "Forget that," Anna cut in. "Who is _he_?" But Bex was a natural-born spy. She just raised her eyebrows and said, "You'll see."**

"Awww... see that, she called me a natural born spy!" Bex says fake blushing  
"Whatever!" Macey says rolling her eyes, "Liz, you want to read next?"  
"Sure" Liz says and opens the book and starts to read...

* * *

**Whew! Finished! That was long. anyway hope you like. Read & Review! No flames please! Only my second story.**

** -Cameron 'Chameleon' Morgan  
**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, I would like to say that I was surprised about how many of you Reviewed the First Chapter. I am going to try to update twice a week.  
Disclaimer: I do not own the Gallagher Girls and Everything typed in bold is taken directly from the GG books, which I also don't own. All credit goes to the amazing Ally Carter**

* * *

**Chapter Two**

**Bex had spent six hours on a private jet, but her cappuccino-colored skin was glowing, and she looked as if she'd just walked out of a Noxzema commercial,**

"Wow, Cammie described my looks to a point!" Bex bragged. **  
**

** so I really wanted to be petty and point out that the sign in the foyer said we were supposed to be speaking English with_ American_ accents during the Welcome Back Dinner. **

"But she doesn't _have_ and American accent," Macey says in a spot on British accent.  
Causing everyone to laugh.

**But as the only non-U.S. citizen Gallagher Girl in history, Bex was used to being an exception. My mom had bent some serious rules when her old friends from England's MI6 called and asked if their daughter could be a Gallagher Girl. Admitting Bex had been Mom's first controversial act as headmistress (but _not_ her last).**

"How many controversial acts have you made?" Liz asks.  
"A couple..." Mrs. Morgan says.**  
**

** "You have a good holiday, then?" Throughout the hall, girls were beginning to eat, but Bex just blew a bubble with her gum and grinned, daring us to ask her for the story. "Bex, if you know something, you've got to tell us," Liz demanded, even though it was totally pointless. _No one_ can make Bex do _an__ything _she doesn't want to do.**

"Well, it was worth a shot... but I didn't work." Liz says disappointed.**  
**

** I may be a chameleon, and Liz may be the next Einstein, but when it comes to general stubbornness, Bex is the best spy ever!**

"Hey!" Bex says with a pout.  
But all Zach could do was laugh.**  
**

** She smirked, and I knew she'd probably been planning this scene since she was halfway over the Atlantic Ocean**

"No, She was probably planning it since she got on the plane!" Abby says  
"I bet it was when she woke up that morning," Macey says.**  
**

** (in addition to being stubborn, Bex is also quite theatrical). She waited until all eyes were on her-holding the silence until Liz was about to explode,**

"Well, that's not very nice!" Zach says, in a perfect imitation of Liz. Causing everyone to laugh**  
**

** then she took a warm roll from the basket on the table and nonchalantly said, "New teacher."**

"Yeah, I think we already gained that." Macey says. She was not here when Mr. Solomon showed up and it was interesting to hear about it.**  
**

** She tore the bread in half and slowly buttered it. "We gave him a ride from London this morning. He's an old pal of my father's." "Name?" Liz asked, probably already planning how she was going to hack into the CIA headquarters at Langley for details as soon as we were free to go back to our rooms.**

"You can do that?" Abby and Rachel ask simultaneously,  
"Yeah..." Liz says, a little embarrassed.  
"Jonas can't even break into Langley." Zach says, causing Liz to blush.**  
**

** "Solomon," Bex said, eyeing us. "Joe Solomon." She sounded eerily like the black, teenage, female James Bond. We all turned to look at Joe Solomon. He had the scruffy beard and restless hands of an agent fresh off a mission.**

"Actually yes, If I remember correctly, he was on a mission when I asked him to teach." The headmistress says. **  
**

** Around me, the halls filled with wipers and giggles-fuel that would have the rumor mill running on high by midnight-and I remembered that even though the Gallagher Academy is a school for girl geniuses, sometimes the emphasis should be kept on the _girl_.**

"Oh God! I can just imagine how the girls are going to react with the whole... 'Make James Bond feel insecure' hot new teacher." Abby laughs.  
"Almost everyone had a crush on him!" Macey laughs along with Abby.  
"You mean like you did?" Bex asks. Macey stops laughing and glares at Bex.  
Now everyone else is laughing. It feels good to be happy again, after being so upset about the missing Chameleon.**  
**

** The next morning was torture. Absolute torture!**

Everyone's face darkens at the bad choice of words.**  
**

** And that's _not_ a word I use lightly, considering the family business. So maybe I should rephrase; the first day of classes was _challenging._ We didn't exactly go to bed early...or even a little late...or even at all, unless you count lying on the faux-fur rug in the common room with the entire sophomore class sprawled around me as the basis for a good night's sleep.**

"I don't think any year sleeps on the first day back," Rachel says. "I can always hear them in their common rooms as I do a perimeter sweep."**  
**

** When Liz woke me up at seven, we decided we could either primp for an hour and skip breakfast, or throw on our uniforms and eat like queens, before Professor Smith's 8:05 COW lecture. B.S. (Before Solomon), waffles and bagels would have won out for sure. **

"They still won out for me," Liz says. "But Bex made Cammie stay."**  
**

**But today, Professor Smith had a lot of eye-lined and lip-glossed girls with growling stomachs listening to him talk about civil unrest in the Baltic States when 8:30 rolled around. I looked at my watch, the ultimate pointless gesture at the Gallagher Academy, because classes run precisely on time, but I had to see how many seconds were standing between me and lunch. (11,705, just in case you're curious.) **

More chuckles echo across the room.**  
**

**When COW was over, we ran up two flights of stairs to the fourth floor for Madame Dabney's Culture and Assimilation lesson which, sadly, that day did not include tea. Then it was time for third period. I had a pain in my neck from sleeping funny, at least five hours' worth of homework, and a newfound realization that woman cannot live on Cherry-flavored lipgloss alone.**

"I thought that was already a given?" Macey asks. "Isn't she supposed to be the second smart one in this group beside Liz."**  
**

** I dug in the bottom of my bag and found a very questionable breath mint, and figured that if I was going to die of starvation, I should at least have minty-fresh breath for the benefit of whatever classmate or faculty member would be forced to give me CPR. Liz had to go by Mr. Mosckowitz's office to drop off an extra-credit essay she'd written over the summer (yeah, she's _that_ girl),**

More laughter rings across the room.**  
**

** so I was alone with Bex when we reached the base of the grand staircase and turned into the small corridor that was one of the three ways to the Subs, or subfloors, where we'd never been allowed before. Standing in front of the full-length mirror, we tried hard not to blink or do anything that might confuse the optical scanner that was going to verify that we were, in fact, sophomores and not freshmen trying to sneak to the Subs on a dare.**

"Yeah Abby!" Rachel says laughing.  
"Hey you were the one who dared me!"

** I studied our reflections and realized that I, Cameron Morgan, the headmistress's daughter, who knew more about the school than any Gallagher Girls since Gilly herself, was getting ready to go deeper into the vault of Gallagher secrets. Judging from the goose bumps on Bex's arm, I wasn't the only one who got chills at the thought of it. A green light flashed in the eyes of a painting behind us.**

"I still think that is cool. Back at Blackthorne we just have classes all on the same level." Zach says.**  
**

** The mirror slid aside, reveling a small elevator that would take us one floor beneath the basement to the Covert Operations classroom and-if you want to be dramatic about it-our destinies. "Cammie," Bex said slowly, "we're in."**

Liz and Bex both share a scared look. They just remembered what happens in a few pages. And it is nothing good.**  
**

** We were sitting calmly, checking our (synchronized) watches, and all thinking the exact same thing: something is definitely different. The Gallagher mansion is made of stone and wood. It has carved banisters and towering fireplaces a girl can curl up in front of on a snowy day and read all about who killed JFK (the _real_ story),**

"Good times," Macey jokes. But the Gallagher Academy really is beautiful.**  
**

** but somehow that elevator had brought us into a space that didn't belong in the same century, much less the same building, as the rest of the mansion. The walls were frosted glass. The tables were stainless steal. But the absolute weirdest thing about the Covert Operations classroom was that our teacher wasn't in that. **

"Dun, dun, duunnn!" Abby laughs.  
"No one told me that he wasn't in the classroom on time." Rachel says.**  
**"They were all probably drooling over him," Zach says with a roll of his eyes.**  
**

**Joe Solomon was late-so late, I was beginning to get a little resentful that I hadn't taken the time to go steal some M&M's from my mom's desk,**

"Morgan's and their chocolate." Abby mutters under her breath. Gaining a laugh from everyone in the room.**  
**

** because, frankly, a two-year-old Tic Tac simply doesn't satisfy the hunger of a growing girl. We sat quietly as the seconds ticked away, but I guess the silence became too much for Tina Walters, because she leaned across the aisle and said, "Cammie, what do you know about him?"**

"Of course, ask the headmistress' daughter." Zach says, because he remembers how persistent Tina is.**  
**

** Well, _I_ only knew what Bex had told me, but Tina's mom writes a gossip column in a major metropolitan newspaper that shall remain nameless (since that's her cover and all), so there was no way Tina wasn't going to try to get to the bottom of this story. Soon I was trapped under an avalanche of questions like, "Where's he from?" and "Does he have a girlfriend?" and "Is it true he killed a Turkish ambassador with a thong?"**

It takes several minutes for Liz to start reading again because everyone is laughing too hard.**  
**

** I wasn't sure if she was talking about the sandals of the sandals or the panties, but in any case, I didn't have the answer. "Come on," Tina said, "I heard Madame Dabney telling Chef Louis that your mom was working on him all summer to get him to take the job. You had to hear something!"**

Abby raises her eyebrow at her sister.  
"You are the one who kissed him!" Rachel says, immediately put on the defense.  
"Touche." Abby replies**.  
**

** So Tina's interrogation did have one benefit: I finally understood the hushed phone calls and locked doors that had kept my mother distracted for weeks. I was just starting to process what it meant, when Joe Solomon strolled into class-five minutes late. His hair was slightly damp, his white shirt neatly pressed-and it''s either a tribute to his dreaminess or our education that it took me two full minutes to realize he was speaking in Japanese. **

"Probably both." Everyone in the room says, minus Zach. When they all look at him he says,  
"What? I'm not gay." He says. "If I was I don't think I would like Cammie now would I?"  
"You just admitted you like her!" Macey Squeals.  
"He did... but just so you know, If you hurt her I will personally hunt you down. Not to mention you will have an angry mother, and three Gallagher Girls hunting you too."**  
**

**"What is the capital of Brunei?" "Bandar Seri Begawan," we replied. "The square root of 97,969 is..." he asked in Swahili. "Three hundred and thirteen," Liz answered in math,**

"Math is the universal language!" Liz says.**  
**

** because, as she likes to remind us, math _is_ the universal language.**

Everyone laughs.**  
**

** "A Dominican dictator was assassinated in 1961," he said in Portuguese. "What was his name?" In unison, we all said "Rafael Trujillo." (An act, I would like to point out, that was _not_ committed by a Gallagher Girl, despite rumors to the contrary.)**

Every Gallagher Girl in the room smiles at all the rumors people come up with. They don't like being accused but it is nice to know that people recognize how good we really are.**  
**

** I was just starting to get into the rhythm of our little game, when Mr. Solomon said, "Close your eyes," in Arabic. We did as we were told. "What color are my shoes?" This time he spoke in English and, amazingly, thirteen Gallagher Girls sat there quietly without and answer.**

"If you think about it, it isn't that surprising." Zach says.  
They all glare at him.  
"Well, you said that you haven't had a decent CoveOps teacher since Buckingham broke her hip... and this is the first time they are being introduced to field work."**  
**

** "Am I right-handed or left-handed?" he asked, but didn't pause for a response. "Since I walked into this room I have left fingerprints in five different places. Name them!" he demanded, but was met with empty silence.**

Zach gives everyone a look that says _I-told-you-so._ And his signature smirk is plastered onto his face.**  
**

** "Open your eyes," he said, and when he did, I saw him sitting on the corner of his desk, one foot on the floor and the other hanging loosely off the side. "Yep," he said. "You girl are pretty smart. But you're also kind of stupid."**

This gains a small amount of laughs. But everyone stops when they think about where Joseph Solomon is right now.**  
**

** If we hadn't known for a scientific fact that the earth simply can't stop moving, we all would have sworn it had just happened. "Welcome to Covert Operations. I'm Joe Solomon. I've never taught before, but I've been doing this stuff for eighteen years, and I'm still breathing, so that means I know what I'm talking about. This is _not_ going to be like your other classes." My stomach growled, and Liz, who had opted for a full breakfast and a ponytail, said, "Shhh," as if I could make it stop.**

"I was trying to listen!" Liz says to no one in particular.**  
**

** "Ladies, I'm going to get you ready for what goes on."" He paused and pointed upward. "Out there. It's not for everyone, and that's why I'm going to make this hard on you. Damn hard.**

"No need to swear, you are in front of children." Rachel says, reprimanding _book_ Joe.**  
**

** Impress me, and next year those elevators might take you one floor lower. But if I have even the slightest suspicion that you are not supremely gifted in the area of fieldwork, then I'm going to save your life right now and put you on the Operations and research track."**

"Why do they force us to do a semester of CoveOps, if we already know we wont be field agents?" Liz asks, genuinely curious.  
"Sometimes Agents need Lab workers out in the field, so we make sure to give them the basic knowledge of Covert Operations." Rachel answers.**  
**

** He stood a placed his hands in his pockets. "Everyone starts in this business looking for adventure, but I don't care what your fantasies look like, ladies. If you can't get out from behind those desks and show me something other than book smarts, then none of you will ever see Sublevel two." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mick Morrison following his every word, almost salivating at the sound of it, because Mick had been wanting to hurt someone for years. **

"Lovely child." Macey says.  
"Hey, other than Cam and me, Mick is the best sparer in our class." Bex reminds her.

**Unsurprisingly, her beefy hand flew into the air. "Does that mean you'll be teaching us firearms, sir?"**

"Not until you're seniors." Abby says, but she ignores the questions from Bex and Macey. Abby notices the look on Zach's face, so she motions for Liz to keep reading, to keep the topic off guns.**  
**

** she shouted as if a drill sergeant might make her drop and do push-ups. But Mr. Solomon only walked around the desk and said, "In this business, if you need a gun, then it's probably too late for one to do any good." Some of the air seemed to go out of Mick's well-toned body. "But on the bright side," he told her, "maybe they'll bury you with it-that's assuming you get to be buried."**

**"Now that's just cold!" Rachel says. "Cammie told me Joe mentioned Matt, but she didn't tell me it was like this."  
**

** My skin burned red. Tears filled my eyes. Before I even knew what was happening, my throat was so tight I could barely breathe as Joe Solomon stared at me. Then, as soon as my eyes locked with his, he glanced away.**

"I guess Joe doesn't want Cam to be a field agent, so he's trying to get her scared." Zach says. No one says anything but Rachel remembers what Joe had said at the end of this semester.

** "The lucky ones come home, even if it _is _ in a box." Although he hadn't mentioned me by name, I felt ms classmates watching me. They all know what happened to my dad-that he went on a mission, that he didn't come home. I'll probably never know any more than those two simple facts, but that those two facts were all that mattered.**

No one says it but, sometimes ignorance is bliss.**  
**

** People call me The Chameleon here-if you go to spy school, I guess that's a pretty good nickname.**

"Pretty good nickname?...that's like the best nickname you can get for a pavement artist!" Abby says**  
**

** I wonder sometimes what made me that way, what keeps me still and quiet when Liz is jabbering and Bex is, well, _Bexing._**

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bex demands. But is met with silence.**  
**

** Am I good at going unnoticed because of my spy genetics or because I've always been shy? Or an I just the girl people would rather not see-lest they realize how easily it could happen to them. **

"No, you're good at going unnoticed because of the spy genetics, no other reason." Zach says firmly. But the person in question isn't there.**  
**

**Mr. Solomon took another step, and my classmates pulled their gazes away just that quickly-everyone but Bex, that is. She was inching toward the edge of her chair, ready to keep me from tearing out the gorgeous green eyes of out new hot teacher as he said, "Get good, ladies. Or get dead."**

A very dark look crossed Abby, Rachel, Bex, and Liz's face's. Zach suddenly feels scared for Joe... _if_ he ever wakes up.**  
**

** A part of me wanted to rum straight to my mother's office and tell her what he'd said, that he was talking about Dad, implying that it had been his fault- that he wasn't _good enough_. But I stayed seated, possibly out of paralyzing anger but more probably because I fear, somewhere inside me, that Mr. Solomon was right and I didn't want my mother to say so. **

"She's got your anger!" Abby says to her sister, trying to lighten the mood. But one look at Rachel, Abby shuts up**  
**

**Just then, Anna Fetterman pushed through the frosted glass doors and stood panting in front of the class. "I'm sorry," she said to Mr. Solomon, still gasping for "The stupid scanners didn't recognize me, so the elevator locked me in, and I had to listen to a five-minute prerecorded lecture about sneaking out of bounds, and..." Her voice trailed off as she studied the teacher and his very unimpressed expression, which I thought was a little hypocritical coming from a man who had been five minutes late himself.**

"I think the scanner has always locked at least one girl in the elevator each year." Macey says a small ghost of a smile on her face.**  
**

** "Don't bother taking a seat," Mr. Solomon said as Anna started toward a desk in the back of the room. "Your classmates were just leaving." We all looked at our recently synchronized watches, which showed the exact same thing-we had forty-five minutes of class time left. Forty-five valuable and never-wasted minutes.**

"A teacher is letting you go early. Just shut up and leave!" Zach says. At Blackthorne they aren't allowed to leave the class until the teacher says dismissed. And if your seen in the halls while you are supposed to be in class you will have to do night drills for a whole month!**  
**

** After what seemed like forever, Liz's hand shot into the air. "Yes?" Joe Solomon sounded like someone with far better things to do. "Is there any homework?" she asked, and the class turned instantly from shocked to irritated. (Never ask _that_ question in a room full of girls who are all black belts in karate.)**

"Only you Liz, only you." Bex says.**  
**

** "Yes," Solomon said, holding the door in the universal signal for _get out._ "Notice things."**

"I think that is the one piece of advice that actually stuck in Cam's mind," Rachel says.**  
**

** As I headed down the slick white hallway to the elevator that had brought me their, I heard my classmates walking in the opposite direction, toward the elevator closest to our rooms. After what had just happened, I was glad to hear their footsteps going the other way. I wasn't surprised when Bex came to stand beside me. "You okay?" she asked, because that's a best friend's job.**

Everyone smiles at Bex, for always being there for Cammie. But Bex frowns because she isn't there for Cammie now.**  
**

** "Yes," I lied, because that's what spies do. We rode the elevator to the narrow first-floor hallway, and as the doors slid open, I was seriously considering going to see my mother (and not just for the M&M's), when I stepped into the dim corridor and heard a voice cry, "Cameron Morgan!"**

"Professor Buckingham." everyone says simultaneously.**  
**

** Professor Buckingham was rushing down the hall, and I couldn't imagine what would make the genteel British lady speak in such a way, when, above us, a red light began to whirl, and a screaming buzzer pierced our ears so that we could barely hear the cries of the electronic voiced that pulsed with the light, "CODE RED. CODE RED. CODE RED."**

"What is a Code Red?" Zach asks. Having only been in the school for a Code Black, he doesn't know what the other colors mean.  
"Fake, non-spy interview." Rachel answers.**  
**

**"Cameron Morgan!" Buckingham bellowed again, grabbing Bex and me by our arms. "Your mother needs you. NOW!"**

"What a way to end the chapter." Abby says.  
Rachel just rolls her eyes and offers to read next.

* * *

**Hey, Read & Review please.**

-Any Ideas For Up Coming Scenes.  
-Characters that you want to be included. (except Cammie)  
-And you favorite part of GG5...if you've read it.

* * *

_**Please take the poll on my profile!**_

* * *

**P.S I just revised it the new chapter is on its way so please hang on and don't give up on me I plan to stay with this story! =D  
**

**-Cameron 'Chameleon' Morgan. =D  
**


	3. Chapter 3

**I'm Back! DON'T KILL ME! Softball got in the way but I worked hard!  
Disclaimer: What's the point! I mean if I owned the Gallagher Girls series why would I be writing this. I would be swimming in a pool full of pop and living in a house made of candy.  
**

**From now on I am going to do the chapters in the character readings POV.  
**

* * *

_******Rachel's POV******_

I pick up the book and start reading.**  
**

**Instantly the corridors went from empty to overflowing as girls ran and staff members hurried and the red lights continued to pulse off and on. **

"That gets annoying especially the first years!" Abby laughs  
"Yeah, especially when your the one causing them!" I remind her. Abby just pouts and the Girls and Zach laugh.**  
**

**A shelf of trophies spun around, sending the plaques and ribbons commemorating winners in the annual hand-to-hand combat and team code-breaking competitions to the hidden compartment behind the wall, leaving a row of of awards from swim meets and debate contests in its place.' Above us, in the upper story of the foyer, three gold-and-burgundy _Learn Her Skills, Honor Her Sword,_ and _Keep Her Secrets_ banners rolled miraculously up and were replaced by handmade posters supporting someone named Emily for student council president. **

"Who's Emily?" I hear tiny shy Elizabeth ask.  
"Someone... somewhere." Zach answers her, with his signature smirk.**  
**

**Buckingham dragged Bex and me up the sweeping staircase as a flock of newbies ran down, screeching at the top their lungs. I remembered what those sirens had sounded like the first time I'd heard them. It was no wonder the girls were acting like it was the end of the world. Buckingham yelled, "Girls!" and silenced them. "Follow Madame Dabney. She's going to take you to the stables for the afternoon. And Ladies"-she snapped at a pair of dark-haired twins who seemed to be especially frantic-"composure!"**

"Yeah ladies! Composure!" Bex and Macey shout, causing everyone to laugh. Even I let out a small amount of laughter. But I stop as soon as I started. I miss Cammie so much. Abby glances over at me and I can tell she notices I am thinking about Cam. She is about to say something but I quickly start reading before she has the chance.**  
**

** And then Buckingham whirled and raced up the staircase to the second-story landing, where Mr. Mosckowitz and Mr. Smith were trying to wheel a statue of Eleanor Everett (the Gallagher Girl who had once disabled a bomb in the White House with her teeth) into a broom closet.**

"I'm guessing that will end badly." Zach smirks. I am so annoyed with his smirks, how can Cammie put up with them!**  
**

** We swept through the Hall of History, where Gillian's sword slid smoothly into the vault beneath its case like Excalibur returning to the Lady of the Lake, and was replaced by a bust of a man with enormous ears who was supposedly the school's first headmaster. **

All of us Gallagher Girls burst out laughing. That bust is so far off from the real first headmaster, it's hilarious.**  
**

**The entire school was in a state of organized chaos.**

"Contradiction," Bex mutters.**  
**

** Bex and I shared a questioning look, because we were supposed to be downstairs, helping the other sophomores check the main level for anything spy-related that someone might have left laying around, but Buckingham turned and snapped, "Girls, hurry!" She sounded less like the soft, elderly teacher we knew and more like the women who had single-handedly taken out Nazi machine guns on D-day.**

Laughter fills the room, it takes me a couple of minutes to begin reading again.**  
**

** I heard a crash behind us, followed by some Polish expletives, and knew that the Eleanor Everett statue was probably in a billion pieces;**

"I was right." More smirking. No one even fells the need to reply. I take this as the opportunity to start reading again.**  
**

** but at the end of the Hall of History, my mother was leaning against the double doors of her office, dropping an M&M into her mouth as calmly as if she were waiting to pick me up from soccer practice, acting like it was just an ordinary day.**

Abby elbows me in the stomach, and I nearly drop Cammie's book on the floor. "Looks like you were distracted by the chocolaty goodness." She teases.  
I shoot her a glare, and her grin grows wider. "Come on sis, taste the rainbow! Skittles are so much better!"  
"Nope M&M's."  
"Skittles!"  
"M&M"S!"  
"Skittl-"  
"OK we get it!" I turn in surprise. Who knew little Elizabeth could get so annoyed.

**Her long dark hair fell across the shoulder of her black pants suit. A wisp of bangs brushed across a flawless forehead that she swears I'll have too, just as soon as my hormones stop waging war with my pores. Sometimes I'm seriously glad that we live ninety percent of our lives inside the mansion, because whenever we do leave, I have to watch men drool over my mom, or (ick) ask if we're sisters, which totally freaks me out, even though I should be flattered that anyone would think I was related to her at all.**

"But aren't you and Abby sisters?" Elizabeth blurts out, and everyone starts talking among themselves. "I mean...both of you look alike."  
"You just look young." Rebecca, or shall I say, Bex, says. I have to admit, I always saw Cammie make a face whenever a man ask that question.

** In short, my mom's a hottie.**

I feel my face grow hot as everyone looks at me square in the eye. "What?"  
"Well, you are very beautiful, Mrs. Morgan..." Macey says trailing off slightly. **(I want to give credit to Pianist707. for giving me this idea and the idea for the POV.)**  
"Thank you Ms. McHenry, that is very nice of you." I say.  
"Well this is awkward." All eyes turn to Zach, "What...It is, I mean, you_ are_ Cammie's mom."  
"Well If you are all done discussing whether or not my sister is 'a_ hottie'..." _Abby gives me a pointed look, so I start reading again.

**"Hey, Cam, Rebecca," she said before turning to Buckingham. "Thanks for bringing them, Patricia. Come inside a sec." Inside he office, thanks to its soundproof walls,the mayhem of the rest of the school completely fade away. Light streamed through leaded windows and flashed upon mahogany paneling and floor-to-ceiling bookcases that were, even as we spoke, spinning around to hide tomes like_ Poisons Through the Ages_ and_ A Praetorian's Guide to an Honorable Death, replacing them with a flip side of volumes like __Educating the Upper Echelon and Private Education Monthly. _There was a photo on her desk of us on vacation in Russia, and I watched in awe as we hugged and smiled in the frame while, in the background, the Kremlin was replaced by Cinderella's Castle at Disney World. **

"Awesome...!" Macey, Elizabeth, and Rebecca sigh out. I give them a small smile.**  
**

**"Holographic, radio-synthesize photo paper," mom said, when she was my gaping mouth. "Dr. Fibs whipped up a batch in his lab over the summer. Hungry?" She held her cupped hand toward Bex and me. Amazingly, I'd forgotten all about my empty stomach, but I took a green piece for good luck. Something told me we were going to need it. "Girls, I need you to do a tour." "But...we're sophomores!" Bex exclaimed, as if my mother had mysteriously forgotten. **

I roll my eyes. I could never forget how old my little girl is. Sometime I wish she never had to face this life. I wish I could go back in time and not tell her about spies. But the past has happened and there is no point in dwelling over it.**  
**

**Mom's mouth was full of chocolate, so Buckingham explained, "The juniors are beginning their semester with interrogation tactics, so they are all under the influence of sodium pentothal at the moment, and the seniors are being fitted with their night vision contacts, and they won't un-dilate for at least two hours.**

"I think that might be the most unfortunate timed Code Red in history." Abby muses.**  
**

** This is most unfortunate timing,**

"Look Abby, you are just like Patricia!" I laugh, the pout on Abby lips causes everyone else to laugh too.**  
**

** but Code Reds are such for a reason. We don't know when they'll happen and, well, one is happening now." "What do you say?" Mom asked, smiling. "Can you help us out?" There are three things a person has to be before they show up uninvited on the doorstep of the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women: persistent, powerful, and completely out of other options. After all, most potential students never make it past the "We are not accepting applications at this time"**

"Wait, so if someone wants to apply to the school, you wont let them in?" Zach asks.  
"We wouldn't want anyone and everyone to know about spies." I answer him.**  
**

** speech the get whenever they call or write; you have to be turned down by every prep school in the country before you actually drive all the way to Roseville, hoping an in-person visit will change our mind. But no amount of persistence or desperation can get you through the gates. No, for that, it takes real power. That's why Bex and I were standing on the front steps, waiting on the black stretch limousine that carried the McHenry family (yes, _those_ McHenrys-the ones on the cover of last December's _Newsweek_) to drive down the winding lane. **

"Oh, no!" Macey mutters, and I turn to look at her. I never did hear the full story of how the tour went. I'm interested to read what happens.**  
**

**They were the kind of people who aren't easily turned away, and we learned along time ago that the best place to hide is in plain sight, so Bex and I were there to welcome them to Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women. Our mission: make sure they never know just _how_ exceptional we really are. Thee man who stepped out of the limo wore a charcoal gray suit jacket and power tie; the woman looked like the cosmetic heiress she was-not a hair or lash out of place-and I wondered if my cherry lip gloss would impress her. Judging from the scowl on her face, it didn't.**

A small smile plays on Macey's lips as she tells us, "Yeah, she was all like 'I don't think some of these girls take the time to look as pretty as they should', and I had to bite my lip to stop from laughing."**  
**

** "Senator," Bex said, extending her hand toward the man, sounding as American as apple pie and loving the charade. "Welcome to the Gallagher Academy. It's an honor to have you with us today." I thought she was laying it on a little thick until Senator McHenry smiled and said, "Thank you. It's wonderful to be here," as if he didn't realize she couldn't vote. "I'm Rebecca," Bex said. "This is Cameron."**

Liz gasps a very dramatic gasp.  
"What?" Abby asks.  
"I never thought I'd see the day when you actually offer your first name." Liz says dramatically to Rebecca.  
"Oh shut up!" Bex jokes. No one can stop laughing for about a minute. (A minute and 34 seconds, to be exact.)**  
**

** The senator glanced at me then looked quickly back to Bex, who looked like a picture-perfect model of an elite education. "We're happy to show you and..." And that's when Bex and I both realized that their daughter hadn't appeared. "Is your daughter going to be..." But just then, a black combat boot emerged from the limousine.**

"And cue entrance of Macey McHenry..." Zach says like a movie director. Only causing me to roll my eyes. Maybe he is a good boy for my daughter. I guess no mom wants to see her girl grow up but I think its a little too late. Seeing as what has happened to Cam over the past two years.**  
**

** "Darling," the senator said, pointing to toward the stables, "come look. They have horses." "Oh, is _that_ what I smell?" Mrs. McHenry said with a shudder. (For the record, our school smell just fine, unless of course your smelling ability has been irreparably damaged by a lifetime of sniffing perfume samples.) But the senator glared at his wife and said, "Macey loves horses." "No, Macey _hates_ horses," **

"Actually, Macey really has no preference about horses. But go ahead, fight over my opinion I'll just be standing here, ignoring you." Macey says annoyed. I must be pretty hard to be a politicians daughter. I never thought about talking to her about it. Maybe getting her to stay with us over the breaks.**  
**

**Mrs. McHenry said, narrowing her eyes and glaring toward Bex and me as if to remind the senator not to contradict her in front of the help. "She fell off one once and broke her arm." I was thinking about disrupting this little display of domestic bliss to tell them both that there weren't any horses in the stables-just freaked-out seventh graders and a former French spy who had invented a way of sending coded messages in cheese, when a voice said, "Yeah, they make good glue."**

No one knows why but this just makes us burst out laughing.**  
**

** Now, I don't know this for a fact, but I'm pretty sure Macey McHenry had never touched a horse in her life. Her legs were long and athletic; her clothes, though punk and rebellious, were definitely high-end, and the diamond in her nose was at least a carat and a half. Her hair might have been stark black and bluntly cut, but it was also thick and shiny, and it framed a face that belonged on the cover of a magazine. **

"Yup, that was my opinion when I first saw you. You scared me a little." Elizabeth says, a little bit of embarrassment in her voice.**  
**

**I've seen enough TV and movies to know that if a girl like Macey McHenry cant survive high school, then someone like me would probably be eaten alive. And yet, something had driven her to our gates-making us her last resort. Or so her parents thought. "We're..." I stammered, because I may be a wiz at poison-concocting, but good at public speaking-I'm not! "We're really happy to have you here."**

"Smooth, leave the talking to me, Chameleon." Bex laughs.**  
**

** "Then why did you keep us sitting"-Mrs. McHenry cocked her head toward the iron gates-"out there for over an hour?" **

Macey rolls her eyes and mumbles something that sounds like 'over dramatic b-'

**"I'm afraid that's standard protocol for people who come without appointments," Bex said in her most honor-student-y voice. "Security is a top concern here at the Gallagher Academy. If your daughter were to go here, you could expect the same level of protection." But Mrs. McHenry's hands were on her hips when she snapped, "Do you know who he is? Do you know-" We were on our way back to D.C.," the senator stepped in, cutting his wife off. "And we just couldn't resist bringing Macey by for a visit." He sent his wife a _this is our last chance, don't blow it _look as he added, "And the security is most impressive." Bex opened the front doors and welcomed them inside, but all I could do was watch them go and think, _Senator, you have no idea._**

_Yeah, _I think_, you really have _no idea.

** Bex and I got to sit in Mom's office as she went through her standard speech about the school's "history." Really, it's no that different from the truth, just _abridged_. A lot. "We have graduates working all over the world," Mom said, and I thought, _Yeah, as spies._**

Light laughs fill the room**  
**

**"We focus on languages, math, science, and culture. Those are the things our graduates tell us they have needed most in their lives." _As spies._**

Heavier laughs fill the room_**  
**_

**"By admitting only young women, our students develope a sense of empowerment, which enables them to be highly successful,"**

"No wait..." Abby starts  
"_As spies!_" All the kids in the room finish. And yes. That includes Abby. I just roll my eyes at their antics.**  
**

** _As spies. _I was just starting to enjoy my little game, when Mom turned to Bex and said, "Rebecca, why don't you and Cammie show Macey around?" and I knew it was showtime.**

"Oh No..." Macey moans again. It must have been a pretty bad first impression.**  
**

** Bex glowed, but all I could do was think about how we'd only had one half of a covert operations course, yet we were already going on a mission! How was I supposed to know how to act? Sure, if Macey wanted to conjugate Chinese verbs or break KGB codes, I was perfectly trained, but our mission was to act normally, and that's something I'm totally not qualified to do! Luckily, Bex just likes to act. Period.**

"Acting is fun. I don't know how you guys call yourselves spies." Rebecca jokes.**  
**

** "Senator," Bex said, gripping his hand, "it was an _honor_ meeting you, sir. And you, too, ma'am." She smiled at Mrs. McHenry. "So glad that you both-" "_Thank you,_ Rebecca," Mom cut Bex off with her don't-overdo-it voice. Macey stood and, with a flurry of her ultra-miniskirt, was through the door and into the Hall of History without even a glance at her parents.**

"That was a little rude, Macey." Liz says.**  
**

** Macey was leaning against a cabinet that normally chronicled the history of the gas mask (a device on whick the Gallagher Academy holds the patent, thank you very much), lighting up a cigarette, when we caught up. She took a long confident drag and then blew smoke toward the ceiling that probably held a dozen different kinds of sensors, the least of which was for smoke. "You've got to put that out," Bex said, entering the make-sure-she-knows-she'd-be miserable-here phase of the operation. "At the Gallagher Academy, we value personal health and safety." Macey looked at Bex as if she'd been speaking Chinese.**

"I was not!" Bex says  
"No, I know you weren't, I mean it was just a little obnoxious." Macey answers her while staring at the floor.**  
**

** I had to think for a moment to make sure she hadn't. "No smoking," I translated as I pulled an empty aluminum can from a recycling bin at the top of the stairs and held it to her. She took another drag and then looked at me as if to say she'd stub out her cigarette when I forced her,**

"Cammie may not look like much but, she is the best spy I have ever known." Zach says, and I look at him a little surprised.**  
**

** which I _could_, of course, but she wasn't supposed to know that. "Fine," I said, and turned to stalk off. "Your lungs." But Bex was glaring at her and, unlike me, she actually looked capable of throwing someone off the landing; so with one last drag, our guest dropped the cigarette into the empty Diet Coke can and followed me down the stairs as a wave of girls past us. "It's lunchtime," I explained, realizing that the green M&M had gotten together with the Tic Tac in my stomach and were trying to convince me that they would like some company. **

Laughter fills the room again.**  
**

**"We can go eat if you want-" "I don't _think_ so!" Macey cried with a roll of her eyes. But stupid me jumped to say, "Really, the food here is great," which totally didn't serve our mission objective, since gross food is usually a pretty good turnoff. But our chef _is_ amazing. He actually worked at the White House before this incident involving Fluffy (the First Poodle), a gastronomical chemical agent, and some very questionable cheese.**

"Odd combination. I wonder what the accident was..." Little Elizabeth trails off and I can see that everyone is also thinking about what the possible accident could have been. And to be honest I don't think I even know what the accident was.**  
**

** Luckily, a Gallagher Girl saved poor Fluffy's life, so to show his appreciation, Chef Louis came to us and brought his awesome creme brulee with him. I started to mention the creme brulee, but then Macey exclaimed, "_I_ eat eight hundred calories a day."**

"That's just crazy!" Zach says.  
Macey shoots him a glare but all he does is smirk back at her.**  
**

** Bex and I looked at each other amazed. We probably burned that many calories in one session of P&E (Protection and Enforcement) class. Macey studied us skeptically, then added, "Food is _so yesterday." _Unfortunately, that was the last time I'd had some.**

I had to wait a little for the argument between Elizabeth, Macey, and Rebecca over who like food the most, Rebecca or Cam, to end. It looks like Macey and Elizabeth won by the upset look on Rebecca's face.**  
**

** We reached the foyer, and I said, "This is the Grand Hall," because that sounded like a school tour-y thing to say, but Macey acted like I wasn't even there as she turned to Bex (her physical equal) and said, "So _everyone_ wears those uniforms?" I found this to be particularly offensive, having been on the uniform selection committee, but Bex just fingered her knee-length navy plaid skirt and matching white blouse and said, "We even wear them during gym class." Good one, I thought, taking in the horror on Macey's face as Bex stepped toward the east corridor and said, "Here we have the library-" But Macey was heading down another hallway. "What's down here?" And just like that she was gone, passing classrooms and hidden passageways with every step.**

"A little too curious are you?" Abby asks her.  
"Well I was in a huge building with girls I thought were complete nerds, what would you have done?" I know the answer before Abby even says it.  
"Tuche."**  
**

** Bex and I jogged to keep up with her, throwing out pieces of made-up trivia like "That painting was a gift from the Duke of Edinburgh" or "Oh, yes' the Wizenhouse Memorial Chandelier," or my personal favorite, "This is the Washington Memorial Chalkboard." (It really is a nice chalkboard.)**

I can only think, _Only you Cammie, only you. _While everyone else is full out laughing.**  
**

** Bex was in the middle of a pretty believable story about how, if a girl gets a perfect score on a test, she's allowed to watch one whole hour of television that week, when Macey plopped down in one of my favorite window seats, pulled out a cell phone, and proceeded to make a call right in front of us without so much as an excuse me. (Rude!) The joke was on her, though, since after dialing in the number she held the device out in front of her in bewilderment. Bex and I glanced at each other, and then I tried to sound all sympathetic as I said, "Yeah, cell phones don't work here." _TRUE. _"We're too far from a tower," Bex added. _FALSE_.**

"Isn't their like a tower twenty feet away from the building?" Rebecca asks.  
"Yeah, there is a cell phone tower near here. I am surprised you didn't mention that." I say the last part to Macey.  
"I really wasn't paying attention to what was going on. I was just bared out of my mind."**  
**

** We'd actually have great cell reception if it weren't for the monster jammer that blocks any and all foreign transmissions from campus, but Macey McHenry and her Capitol Hill father certainly didn't need to know that. "No cell phones?" Macey said as if we'd just told her all the students were required to shave their heads and live on bread and water. "That's it. I'm _so _out of here."**

"Oh No! There is no cell phone service! The world must be ending!" Zach fake mocks Macey's voice, and we all burst out laughing at his impression.**  
**

** And then she turned and stormed back toward my mother's office. At least she _thought_ that was the way to my mother's office. She was nearing the doors that lead down to the Research and Development department in the basement. I was pretty sure Dr. Fibs would have everything in Code Red form, but in the tradition of mad scientists everywhere, Dr. Fibs had a tendency to be a little, shall we say, accident prone. Sure enough, as we turned the corner, we saw Mr. Mosckowitz, who happened to be the world's foremost authority on data encryption, but he didn't look like a mega-genius just then. No. He looked like the resident alcoholic. **

I remember Patricia telling me about the mess up in the labs. But I don't think she mentioned the fact they went by the labs. I am going to have to talk to her about that. And ask what the fog was.**  
**

**His eyes were bloodshot and watering, his face was pale, and he was totally stumbling and slurring his words as he said, "_Hello!_" Macey stared at him in disgust, which was actually a good thing, because that way she didn't notice the thick fog of purple smoke that was seeping beneath the stairwell doors behind him. Professor Buckingham was shoving towels in the cracks, but every time she got near the purple fog she'd start sneezing uncontrollably. She kicked the towel with her foot. Dr. Fibs appeared with a roll of duct tape and started trying to seal up the cracks around the doors. (How's that for superspy technology?) **

I know everyone in the room was laughing inside, they must have gotten the point of my stop-interrupting glare.**  
**

**Mr. Mosckowitz kept swaying back and forth, maybe because the purple stuff had messed with his sense of balance or maybe he was trying to block Macey's view, which would have been tough, considering he can't be an inch taller than five foot five. He said, "I understand you're a potential student." But just then, Dr. Fibs's tall, lanky frame crashed onto the floor. He was out cold, and the purple smoke was growing thicker. **

"DUN, DUN, DUUNNNN!" Abby shouts. And in my ear on top of that.  
"Well, thank you Abigale. Now I need to get my hearing checked." I say sarcastically.  
"Your welcome, Rachel!" She replies.**  
**

**Bex and I looked at each other. _This is seriously NOT GOOD! _ Buckingham hauled Dr. Fibs into a teacher's chair and started rolling him away, but I didn't have a clue what to do. Bex grabbed Macey's arm. "Come on, Macey. I know a short-" But Macey only wrenched her arm out of Bex's grasp and said, "Don't touch me, b-."**

I turn and look at Macey. A little bit surprised. But Macey is looking at Bex with an apologetic look and she's looking back with an forgiving look.**  
**

** (Yeah, that's right, she called Bex the B word.) Now she, here's where the whole private-school thing puts a girl at a disadvantage. MTV will lead us to believe that the B word has become a term of endearment or slang among equals, but I still mainly think of it as the insult of choice for the inarticulate. So, either Macey hated us or respected us, but I looked at Bex and knew that she was betting on the former. Bex stepped forward, shaking off her happy schoolgirl persona and putting on her superspy face. **

"Rebecca, that is not the time to 'put on your "superspy" face'." I remind her.**  
**

**This is SERIOUSLY not good, I thought again, just as a white shirt and khaki pants appeared in my peripheral vision. **

"Joe Solomon to the rescue!" Abby and Zach laugh at the same time. Causing everyone else (including me) to start laughing. Again.**  
**

**Never again will I wonder if the only reason we thought Mr. Solomon was hot was because we'd been grading on the girls'-school curve; one look at Macey McHenry made it perfectly clear that even beyond the walls of the Gallagher Academy, Joe Solomon was gorgeous. And _she_ didn't even know he was a spy (which always makes a guy hotter).**

No one could get Abby to stop laughing. So I just started to try and read above her laughing...**  
**

** "Hello." It was the exact thing Mr. Moskowitz said, but _oh_ it was different. "Welcome to the Gallagher Academy. I hope you're considering joining us," he said, but I'm pretty sure Macey, Bex, and I all heard, _I think you're the most beautiful wom_an _in the world, and I'd be honored if you'd bear my children._ (Really, truly, I think he said that.) **

Abby's laugh increased while Bex and Macey looked completely embarrassed.**  
**

**"Are you enjoying your tour?" he asked, but Macey just batted her eyelashes and went all seductive in a way that totally didn't go with her combat boots. Maybe it was the cloud of purple smoke wafting toward me, but I thought I might barf. **

It didn't look like Abby was going to stop laughing anytime soon, when she miraculously calmed herself.**  
**

**"Do you have a second?" Mr. Solomon asked, but didn't wait for a response before he said, "There's something on the second floor that I'd love to show you." He pointed her toward a circular stone staircase that had once been a fixture in the Gallagher family chapel. Stained-glass windows stood two stories tall and colored the light that landed on Mr. Solomon's white shirt as we climbed. When we reached the second floor, he held his arms out at the grand, high-ceilinged corridor that was awash in a kaleidoscope of color. It was, in a word, beautiful, and yet I'd never really noticed it until then-there had always been classes to get to, assignments to finish. I heard Mr. Solomon's lecture again-_notice things_-and I couldn't help feeling that we'd just had our first CoveOps test. And we'd failed. **

"Yes Squirt, He gave you that lesson just so you can look at some stained glass for the first time." Abby's laugh continues.**  
**

**He walked us all the way back to the Hall of History before turning back toward that gorgeous wall of stained glass. As Macey watched him go, she muttered, "Who was _that_?" It was the first enthusiastic thing Macey had said since crawling out of the limo and maybe long before that-probably since realizing that her father would sell his soul for a vote and her mother was the B word as used in its traditional context.**

Macey looks decently pissed with her family and I feel a little sorry for her.**  
**

** "He's a new teacher," Bex answered. "Yeah," Macey scoffed. "If you say so." But Bex, who hadn't forgotten the B-word incident, wheeled around and said, "I _do_ say so." Macey reached for her pack of cigarettes but stopped short when Bex's glare hardened. "Let me lay it out for you," Macey said, like it was some big favor. "Best-case scenario: all the girls go ga-ga for him and lose focus, which I'm sure is very important at the _Gallagher_ Academy,"  
**

More laughing from Abby and I can't help but glare at her. She just doesn't seem to get it.**  
**

** she said with mock reverence. "Worst-case scenario: he's an inappropriate-conduct case looking for a place to happen."**

She Just wont stop laughing! I feel the need to slap her, but I don't. Because...well...she's my sister.**  
**

** I had to admit that, so far, Macey the B word was making some sense. "The only people who teach at these places are freaks and geeks. And when you've got a headmistress who looks like that"-she pointed to my mom in all her hotness, who stood talking to the McHenrys thirty feet away-"it's easy to see what Mr. Eyecandy was hired for." "What?" I asked, not understanding. "You're the _Gallagher Girl_," she mocked again. "If you can't figure that out, then who am _I_ to tell you." I thought about my mother-my beautiful mother, who had recently been winked at by my sexy CoveOps teacher, and I thought I would never eat again.  
**

I felt a blush creep up on my cheeks but I force my self to hold my ground and give the book to a giggling Abby, while saying to her. "Enough with the laughter already we get it!" Abby still doesn't stop laughing so I hit her over the head with the book. "Hey!" But her protest is muffled by laughter.

* * *

**The END! Yay! Read and Review! No flames, constructive criticism is alright.**

** -Cameron 'Chameleon' Morgan! =D  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Back. I am going to try and update once every week. Now on to the story.**  
**Disclaimer: ... What do you think I'm going to say? I mean if I wrote the GG's I would not be here I would be on the way to Paris, than France, than Italy, than Germany, than Switzerland, than a cruise to the Caribbean, than...well I think you get it.  
**

* * *

Abby's POV:

It took a while for me to stop laughing. I honestly do not know how I can laugh at a time like this but I guess ignorance is bliss. I really could kill Cam right now, she is in so much trouble. Rachel is glaring at me, I take this as my cue to read. I compose myself and begin...

**There are many excellent things about having three girls sharing a four-girl suite. The first, obviously is closet space-followed by shelf space followed by the fact that we had an entire corner of the room devoted to beanbag chairs. It was a very sweet setup (if you'll pardon the pun), but I don't think any of us really appreciated what we had until two guys from the maintenance department knocked on our door and asked us where we wanted the extra bed. **

**"**I'm _So Sorry _that I made you lose your beanbag chair corner." Macey says oozing with sarcasm  
"Well remember, we didn't like you that much." Bex replies, It shocks me a little. I thought they were the best of friends since the start but apparently not. I look at Macey and all she does is roll her eyes.

**Now, in addition to our teachers and our chef,**

I look around and can tell everyone in the room is drooling over Chef Louis' food. Even Rach...and evil idea pops in my head. I take out my cell phone and take a picture. _Blackmail!_**  
**

** the Gallagher Academy has a pretty extensive staff, but it's not the kind of place that advertises in the want ads (well...you know...except for coded messages). There are two types of people who come here-students looking to get into the AlphaNet (CIA, FBI, NSA, ect.), and staff members looking to get out.**

"Technically, wouldn't they not be staff yet?" Liz asks, and I realize she has a fair point. They would not have been staff until after they got out of the AlphaNet.  
"Right again, Lizzie." Bex replies.**  
**

** So when two men built like refrigerators show up with long poles and vise grips, it's fairly likely that those have been the tools of their trade for a while now-just in a _very different_ context. That's why we didn't ask any questions that night. We just pointed to a corner and then the three of us made a beeline for the second floor. "Come in, girls," my mother yelled as soon as we entered the Hall of History-long before she could have seen us. Even though I'd grown up with her, sometime her superspy instincts scared me.**

"Rachel, you really shouldn't be scaring your daughter." I say with mock sincerity**.  
**I turn to look at her, but it was a bad idea. Quickly I start reading before I get an earful of a lecture.**  
**

** She walked to the door. "I've been expecting you." I'd been working on a doozy of a speech, let me tell you, but as soon as I saw my mother silhouetted in the door frame I forgot it. Luckily, Bex never has that problem. "Excuse me, ma'am," she said," but do you know why the maintenance department has delivered an extra bed to our room?" **

My eyes grow wide. No one has ever dared to say something like that to my sister. The last person who did is... I thinks, still in a coma. (Not Joe of course!)**  
**

**Anyone else asking that question in that tone might have seen the wrath of Rachel Morgan, but all my mom did was cross her arms and match Bex's scholarly inflections. "Why, yes, Rebecca. I do know." "Is that information you can share with us ma'am? Or is it need-to-know?" (If anyone had a need -it was us. We were the ones losing our beanbag corner over the deal!)**

I roll my eyes. Ahhh! I need to stop spending so much time with Rachel! I notice Macey is staring at me and I realized that I stopped reading. Not wanting to explain I continue...**  
**

** But Mom just took a step and gestures for us to follow. "Let's take a walk." Something was wrong, I realized. It had to be, so I was on her heels, following her down the grand staircase, saying, "What? Is it blackmail? Does the senator have something on-"**

"I have a bad feeling that this is not going to end well." Zach pipes up and I turn to him in surprise he really blends into the shadows. Wait...  
"Just out of curiosity Zach, but what is your codename?" He looks at me in surprise. "Shadow...why?"  
"No reason." I smirk. Ahhh! Now I need to stop spending time with Zach.  
"Whats with the sudden British Accent?" Liz asks me.  
"AHHH!" I scream.  
"What?" Bex asks in alarm, looking around the room for any hints of danger, and...Cam.  
"I _need_ to stop spending so much time around you guys!" They all look at me with questionable looks about my sanity. Then they all burst out laughing.**  
**

** "Cameron," Mom said, trying to cut me off. "Is he on the House Armed Services Committee? Is it a funding thing, because we could start charging tuition you-" "Cammie, just walk," Mom commanded. I did as I was told, but I still didn't shut up.**

"And that is where it wont end well." Macey says dramatically.**  
**

** "She wont last. We can get rid of-" "Cameron Ann Morgan,"**

"Oh, no," I give a fake gasp. "Not the middle name card!"  
"You wouldn't!" Zach continues up the dramatic act.  
"The horror!" The three girls shout.  
Rachel gives me a sweet look and asks, "Abby, can I see the book for a moment?"  
"Sure." Bad idea. As soon as the book is in her hands, she smacks me upside the head with it.  
"Hey!" I protest. She just smiles innocently, "Here's the book back." I childishly stuck my tongue out at her.**  
**

** Mom said, playing the middle-name card that all moms keep in their back pockets for just such an occasion. "That's enough." I froze as she handed the large manila envelope she'd been carrying to Bex and said, "Those are your new roommate's test scores." Okay, I'll admit it-they were good. Not_ Liz-_good,**

"I don't think anyone's scores will be as good as Lizzie's." Bex says in all sincerity, causing little Elizabeth to blush.**  
**

** or anything, but they were far better than Macey McHenry's 2.0 GPA would indicate. We turn down an old stone corridor, our feet echoing through the cold hall. "So she tests well," I said. "So-" Mom stopped short, and all three of us nearly ran into her. "I don't run decisions past you, do I, Cammie?" Shame started brewing inside me, but Mom had already shifted her attention toward Bex. "And I do make controversial decisions from time to time, _don't I, Rebecca?_" At this, we all remembered how Bex came to us, and even she shut up. "And, Liz." Mom shifted her gaze one last time. "Do _you_ think we should only admit girls who come from spy families?"**

"No. Way." I look at my sister in surprise.  
"What." She asks.  
"I never thought you would blackmail three young, innocent, girls." I say in fake drama.**  
**

** That was it-she had us. Mom crossed her arms and said, "Macey McHenry will bring a much-needed level of diversity to the Gallagher Academy. She has family connections that will allow entry into some very closed societies. She has an underutilized intellect. And..." mom seemed to be pondering this next bit. "...she has a _quality_ about her." _Quality?_ Yeah, right. Snobbery is a quality, so is elitism, fascism, and anorexicism.**

"I'm not anorexic!" Macey says, "I still eat!" No one contradicts her.**  
**

** I started to tell my mom about the eight-hundred-calorie-a-day thing, or the B-word thing, or to point out that Code Reds were fake interviews, not real ones. But then I looked at the women who had raised me and who, rumor has it, once sweet-talked a Russian dignitary into dressing in drag and carrying a beach ball full of liquid nitrogen under his shirt like a pregnant lady,**

"Mrs. Morgan?" Liz asks.  
"Yes, Ms. Sutton."  
"What really happened?" Bex continues. "Is that the truth." Elizabeth finishes.  
"Yes girls, that really did happen. But a really long time ago, and it's best if you not repeat that. It was classified mission information."**  
**

** and I knew I was sufficiently outgunned, even with Bex and Liz beside me. "And if that isn't enough for you..." Mom turned to look at an old velvet tapestry that hung in the center of the long stone wall. Of course I'd seen it before. If a girl wanted to stand their long enough, she could trace the Gallagher family tree that branched across the tapestry through nine generations before Gilly, and two generations after. If a girl had better things to do, she could reach behind the tapestry, to the the Gallagher family crest imbedded in the stone, and turn the little sword around, then slip through the secret door that pops open.**

I look around the room. I notice that Zach has a far off look in his eyes and I'm guessing it has to do with Blackthorne coming to Gallagher a couple of semesters ago. I continue reading. And that snaps him out of whatever he had been day dreaming about.**  
**

** (Let's just say I'm the second type of girl.)**

"She had ruined so many blouses I had to order an extra twenty at the start of the semesters." Rach informs us and we all think about how Cammie was anywhere and everywhere in the mansion on a give day**.  
**

** "What does this have to do with..." I started, but Liz's "Oh my gosh" cut me off. I followed my friend's thin finger to the line at the bottom of the tapestry. I'd never known that Gilly had gotten married. I'd never known she had a child. I'd never dreamed that child's last name was "McHenry." **

"You guys new since the first semester of sophomore year! And you never bothered to tell me!" Macey is fuming and I think back to when Macey ran while I was her security detail. Cammie did say that Macey had overheard her talking to Zach about it. And with one look at Rachel I can tell she is thinking the same thing. _We should have told her sooner._**  
**

**And all this time I thought _I_ was a Gallagher legacy. "If Macey McHenry wants to come here," Mom said, "We'll find a place for her." She turned and started to leave, but Liz called after her, "But, ma'am, how's she gonna...you know...catch up?" Mom considered this to be a fair question, because she folded her hands and said, "I admit that, academically, Ms. McHenry will be behind the rest of the sophomore class. For that reason, she will be taking many of her courses with our younger students." Bex grinned at me, but even the thought of Macey's supermodel legs stretching her high above a class full of newbies**

Macey glares at Bex and Liz.  
"I didn't think that! Only Bex and Cammie did!" The glare changes to just Bex. To save her British..._but__t_... I continue the book.**  
**

** couldn't change the fact that two guys with bald heads (that may or may not have prices on them) were at that very moment making room for her in our suite. The question on my mother's face was whether we would make room for her in our lives. I looked at my nest friends, knowing that our mission, should we chose to accept it, was to befriend Macey McHenry. The good girl inside of me knew that I should at least _try_ to help her fit in.**

Everyone smiles.**  
**

** The spy in me knew I'd been given an assignment, and if I ever wanted to see Sublevel Two, I'd better grin and say "Yes ma'am."**

Everyone laughs.**  
**

** The daughter in me knew there wasn't any choosing involved here.**

Everyone smiles and laughs.**  
**

** "When does she start?" I asked. "Monday." That Sunday night I met Mom in her office for Tater Tots and chicken nuggets. We had one hard-and-fast rule about Sunday night suppers-Mom had to make them herself, which is nice and all, but not exactly good for my digestion.**

I can't help myself, I just burst out laughing.  
"Just out of curiosity Abby, but can _you_ cook?" Zach asks mirroring my earlier question.  
"Yes _Shadow_ it just so happens that I can cook wonderfully." I say. I had always joked that I had gotten all of the cooking skills.**  
**

** (Dad always said the most lethal thing about her was her cooking.)**

"It is." I mumble under my breath. But we're spies and everyone in the room hears. All the kids break into laughter while Rachel, mirroring my earlier move childishly stuck her tongue out at me.**  
**

** Directly beneath us, my friends were dining on the finest foods a five-star chef could offer, but as my mom walked around in an old sweatshirt of my dad's, looking like a teenager herself, I wouldn't have traded places with them for all the creme brulee in the world.**

"Awwww!" echo's through the room from the three girls and me. **  
**

** When I first came to the Gallagher Academy, I felt guilty about being able to see my mother every day when my classmates had to go months on end without their parents. Eventually, I stopped feeling bad about it. After all, Mom and I don't have summers together. But mostly, we don't have Dad.**

Suddenly I become interested in the floor. _It's all my fault. It's all my fault. It's all my fault._ I look up with regret in my eyes. Rachel takes one look at me and opens her mouth to speak, "Abby-" I cut across her and continue reading.**  
**

** "So how's school?" She always asked as if she didn't know-and maybe she didn't. Maybe, just like every good operative, she wanted to hear all sides of the story before making up her mind. I dipped a Tater Tot in some honey mustard dressing and said, "Fine." "How's CoveOps?" the mother asked, but I knew the headmistress was in there somewhere, and she wanted to know if her newest staff member was making the grade. "He knows about dad." I don't know where the sentence came from or why I spoke it. I'd spent six days dreading Macey McHenry's arrival into our little society,**

"Well thank you for 'dreading' my arrival." Macey says with sarcasm.**  
**

** but _that_ was what I said when I finally had my mother alone? I studied her, wishing Mr. Solomon would have covered _Reading Body Language_ that week instead of _Basic Surveillance. _"There are people in this world, Cam-people like Mr. Solomon-who are going to know what happened to him. It's their _job_ to know what happened. I hope someday you'll get used to the look in people's eyes as they put two and two together and try to decide whether or not to mention it. Am I right to assume Mr. Solomon mentioned it?"**

"In a way..." I put in mysteriously**.  
**

** "Kinda." "And how did you handle it?" I hadn't yelled, and I hadn't cried, so I told my mother, "Okay, I guess." "Good." She smoothed my hair, and I wondered for the millionth time if she had one set of hands for work and another for moments like this.**

Laughter rings out of me, and I couldn't stop.**  
**

** I imagined her keeping them in a briefcase and swapping them out, silk for steel. Dr. Fibbs could have made them-but he didn't.**

"No Lizzie." Bex and Macey say together. Liz must have been thinking about inventing a extra pair of hands.**  
**

** "I'm proud of you, kiddo," she said simply. "It'll get easier." My mom's the best spy I know-so I believed her.**

I put on a fake pout and the girls and Zach laugh.**  
**

** When we woke up the next morning, I remembered that it was Monday. I forgot that it was _The_ Monday. That's why I stopped cold on my way into breakfast when I heard Buckingham's powerful "Cameron Morgan!"**

"Never a good sign." Liz mutters. I'm guessing a teacher shouting her name is a nightmare to Liz.**  
**

** echo through the foyer. "I'll need you and Ms. Baxter and Ms. Sutton to follow me, please." Bex and Liz looked as lost as I felt, until Buckingham explained, "Your new roommate has arrived."**

"Ooohhhhh!" Zach and I say simultaneously. Like we had no idea that was coming.**  
**

** Buckingham _was_ pretty old, and we _did_ have her outnumbered three-to-one, but still I didn't see any alternatives. We fallowed her up the stairs. I thought it would just be Mom and Macey in her office-Macey's parents having already been sent away in the limo if they'd bothered coming at all (which they hadn't) -but when Buckingham threw open the door I saw Mr. Solomon and Jessica Boden**

Shudders from Bex, Liz, Macey, and Zach. A skeptic looks crosses my face. _Wonder what that's about._**  
**

** sharing the leather couch. He looked so completely bored I almost felt sorry for him, and Jessica was perched eagerly on the edge of the sofa. The guest of honor was seated across the desk from my mother, wearing an official uniform but looking like a supermodel. She didn't even turn when we walked in. "As I was saying, Macey," my mom said, once Liz, Bex, and I had positioned ourselves in the window seat at the far side of the room while Buckingham stood at attention in front of the bookshelves, "I hope you'll be happy here at the Gallagher Academy." "Humph!" Yeah, I know _heiress_ isn't one of the languages I speak, but I'm pretty sure that translates into _Tell it to someone who c__ares because I've heard it all before, and your only saying that because my father wrote you an enormous check._**

"Yup, that about sums it up." Macey laughs.**  
**

**(But that's just a guess.) "Well, Macey," an utterly repulsive voice chimed. I'm not sure why I hate Jessica Boden, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that her posture is way too up-and-down, and I don't trust someone who doesn't know how to properly slouch.**

"I'm there with you sister. Or...daughter of my sister?"**  
**

** "When the trustees heard about your admittance, my mother-" "Thank you, Jessica." _How much do I love my mother? Very much._ Mom opened a thick file that lay on her desk. "Macey, I see here that you spent a semester at the Traid Academy?" "Yeah," Macey said. (Now,_ there's_ a girl who knows how to slouch.) "And then a full year at Wellington House. Two months at Ingalls. _Ooh,_ just a week at the Wilder Institute." "Do you have a point?" Macey asked, her tone just as sharp as the letter opener-slash-dagger that Joe Solomon had been absentmindedly fingering while they spoke.**

"How can someone absentmindedly finger a dagger?" Liz asks horrified, and I remember that the girls don't know what Blackthorne _is_.**  
**

** "You've seen a lot of different schools, Macey-" "I wouldn't say there was anything _different_ about them," she shot back. But no sooner had the words left her mouth than the letter-opening dagger went slicing through the air, no more than a foot away from her glossy hair, flying from Mr. Solomon's hand directly toward Buckingham's head.**

"Scary, yet entertaining." Bex says.**  
**

** It all happened so fast-like blink-or-you'll-miss-it fast. One second Macey was talking about how all prep schools are the same, and the next, Patricia Buckingham was grabbing a copy of _War and Peace_ from the bookshelf behind her and holding it inches from her face just as the dagger pierced its leather cover.**

"The poor book!" I say in a very Liz like southern accent, causing everyone to giggle. except for Zach because, _apparently_, guys don't giggle.**  
**

** For a long time, the only sound was the subtle vibration of the letter opener as it stuck out of the book, humming like a tuning fork looking for a middle C. Then my mom leaned onto her desk and said, "I think you'll find there are some things we teach that your other schools haven't offered." "What..." Macey stammered. "What...What...Are you crazy?"**

"Nope...That's Abby." I glare at my sister.  
"Now Rachel, that's not a very nice thing to say to someone who is filling in for CoveOpps for you." I say. "Not to mention someone who has an embarrassing picture of you drooling over Chef Louis' food like five minutes ago." Rachel's eyes widen and I grin to myself and continue.**  
**

** That's when my mom went through the school history again -the _unabridged _version-starting with Gilly and then hitting highlights like how it was Gallagher Girls giving each other manicures who had figured out the whole no-two-fingerprints-are-alike thing, and a few of our more highly profitable creations. (Duct tape didn't invent itself you know.)**

Something civilians will never know, that the most awesome group of girls invented the thing they use for bracelets, flowers, wallets.**  
**

** When Mom finished, Bex said, "Welcome to spy school,"**

"Oh yeah!" Bex and Liz high-five. **  
**

** in her real accent instead of the geographically neutral drawl, which is all Macey had heard until then, and I could tell she was about to go into serious information overload, which, of course, wasn't helped by Jessica. "Macey, I know this is going to come as a big adjustment to you, but that's why my mother-she's a Gallagher Trustee-has encouraged me to help you through this-" "Thank you Jessica," Mom said, cutting her off yet again. "Perhaps I can make things a little more clear."**

"What comes next did _not _make things clearer. Just an F.Y.I." Macey says to Rachel.**  
**

** Mom reached into her pocket and pulled out what looked like an ordinary silver compact. She flipped up the lid and touched her forefinger to the mirror inside. I saw the small light scan her fingerprint, and when she snapped the compact closed, the world around Macey McHenry shifted as the whole Code Red process went into reverse. The bookshelves had been facing wrong-way-out for a week, but now they were spinning around to show their true side. Disney World disappeared in the photo on Mom's desk; and Liz broke out her Portuguese long enough to say, "_Sera que ela vai vomitar?"_**

**I laugh_. Only Liz.  
_**

** But I had to shake my head in response because I honestly didn't know whether or not Macey was going to throw up. When everything stopped spinning (literally) Macey was surrounded by more than a hundred years of covert secrets, but she wasn't stopping to take it all in. Instead, she screamed, "You people are psycho!"**

"Not psycho...spies. Well except possibly Abby." Zach joins in on the me bashing.  
"Since when did it turn out to be _pick on Abby_ day?"  
"It never stopped." Rachel comments. I glare.**  
**

** and bolted for the door. Unfortunately, Joe Solomon was one step ahead of her. "Get out of my way!" she snapped.**

"I still can't believe you did that." Bex says.  
"What?" Macey asks as confused as I felt.  
"Yelled at _Joe Solomon._" Liz finished. I just grin to myself and laugh out loud.**  
**

** "Sorry," he said coolly. "I don't believe the headmistress is finished quite yet." "Macey." My mom's voice was calm and full of reason. "I know this might come as quite a shock to you. But we're really just a school for exceptional young women. Our classes are hard. Our curriculum unique. But you may use what you learn here anywhere else in the world. In any way you see fit." Mom's eyes narrowed. Her voiced hardened as she said, "_If_ you stay."**

**I could tell at that point Macey was probably considering leaving the mansion. But obviously she stayed  
**

** When Mom stepped forward, I knew she wasn't talking as an administrator anymore; she was talking as a mother. "If you want to leave, Macey, we can make you forget this ever happened. When you wake up tomorrow, this will all be dream you don't remember, and you'll have one more dismal school experience on your record.**

"At that point I was freaking out. I creepy when someone says you wont remember a thing." Macey says.**  
**

** But no matter your decision, there is only one thing you have to understand." Mom was moving closer, and Macey snapped, "What?" "_No one_ will _ever_ know what you have seen and heard here today." Macey was still starring daggers, but my mom didn't have a copy of _War and Peace_handy, so she reached for the next best thing. "Especially your parents." And just when I'd thought I'd never seen Macey McHenry smile...**

"Best thing I'd ever heard in my life." Macey mutters.**  
**I hand the book to the person next to me who just so happens to be Zach.

* * *

**Read & Review:**

***How was the story  
*Your favorite Gallagher Girl book  
*And your favorite part of that book **

**And please read my story 'Confessions' I wrote it for a Romance Challenge and I would like all of your input on that story.  
**

**-Cameron 'Chameleon' Morgan. =D  
**


	5. AN: Sorry! Please Read!

**Authors Note SORRY! **

**But I haven't updated because I work with these kids in a Parks & Rec. Program, Monday-Thursday, 10:15-1:45. Its fun but time consuming. I get home super tired then I have softball Monday and Wendsday's. So I am so sorry! **

**And have you guys have noticed they are taking down all the 'Reading the Books' stories. They say it goes against 'FanFiction policy and rules.' I thought this sight was to let people express the writing abilities in whatever form they wanted, but i guess not. **

**I hope to get the new chapter out this week maybe. So give me some input on things you want to see in the story. **

**I will keep this in the story so feel free to Review. I'll give you Zach Goode or well an invisible version of him that can't talk.**

**Read & Review:**

***Your favorite Gallagher Girls Book.**

***Favorite scene from that book.**

***And your favorite Gallagher Girls quote.**

**Untill Later...**

**-Chameleon Out!**


	6. Chapter 5 part one

**Zach's POV:  
**

Great. Yeah this is_ just_ how I want to spend my time. Not looking for my Gallagher Girl, but instead reading about Jimmy. But I put on my emotionless mask and take the book from Abby.

I open my mouth to start reading but the door bursts open and there standing in the frame was none other than Joe Solomon.

"Mr. Solomon!" In a blur Joe was forced into a bear hug by a flash of blonde hair.

"Welcome back." Bex and Macey say at the same time as Mrs. Morgan and Abby say, "Nice to see you up."

"Good to be back girls, Rachel, Abby." He turns to me a small smile adorns his face. "Zachary, nice to see you alive an well." He pauses the smile falls as he notices we are one girl short. "Aren't there supposed to be four of you." His words are indicated to the semi circle Bex, Liz, and Macey formed.

All heads except for Joe's heads drop. His voice breaks as he tries to understand. "She didn't...no...Blackthorne? She didn't make it did she?"

"No she made it. Ended up jumping through the waterfall to avoid _her._" Abby informs him.

"She well...she ran away." Liz gets out before tears start streaming down her cheeks. Joe's eyes go wide and show shock as Macey continues, "We have no clue as to where she is. Not a trace, that's what we get for them chasing a Chameleon, she has disappeared.

"Then what are all you guys doing sitting here. Why aren't you guys out looking for her?" He demands

"We were but the trail has gone cold we have no leads we where hoping these books with help us." Headmistress Morgan says as calm as she possibly can with the possibility her daughter is dead.

"Well then carry on." He sits down in between Abby and Mrs. Morgan. "Don't worry Rachel, she'll be fine, she is _your _daughter after all."

The girls look at me and I start.

**By the third week of school, me backpack was heavier than me (well, maybe not me, but probably Liz), I had a mountain of homework, and the sign above the Grand Hall was announcing that we'd all better dust off our French if we intended to make small talk during lunch. Plus, it was almost a full-time job keeping the rumors separated from facts.**

"Cam usually is the only one that people will actually listen to about rumors." Liz spoke up and McHenry and Bex nodded their heads in agreement.  
"Except Tina, but she'll never listen to anyone." Macey contradicts.**  
**

**(No big surprise who the rumors were all about.) Macey McHenry had gotten kicked out of her last school because she was pregnant with the headmaster's baby.**

Macey's eyes widened as we all laugh excluding the adults**  
**

** RUMOR. At her first P&E class, Macey kicked a seventh grader so hard she was out cold for an hour. FACT. (And also the reason Macey's now taking P&E with the eighth graders.)**

"Nice." Bex complimented. "That's one way to advance classes quickly."**  
**

** Macey told a seventh grader that her glasses make her face look fat, a senior that her hair looks like a wig (which it _is_, thanks to a very unfortunate plutonium incident),**

"Well _sorry_ that I didn't know that and was trying to help." Macey says indignantly.**  
**

** and Professor Buckingham that she should really try control-top panty hose. FACT. FACT. FACT. As we walked between Madame Dabney's tea room and the elevator to Sublevel One, Tina Walters told me for about the tenth time, "Cammie, you don't even have to steal the file...just take a little-"**

I smirk knowing exactly what Tina means, But no one else seams to have caught on except for the adults.**  
**

** "Tina!" I snapped, then whispered because a crowded hallway full of future spies isn't the best place to have covert conversations, "I'm not going to steal Macey's permanent record just to see if she really set the gym on fire at her last school."**

Macey turns to glare at Cammie than quickly remembers that she isn't here and a dark shadow crosses my face.  
"Well I'll let you know right now that I did _not_ set fire to a gym. _Ever!" _Macey huffs.**  
**

** "_Borrow," _Tina reminded me. "_Borrow_ the permanent record. Just a peek." "No!" I said again, just as we turned into the small, dark corridor. I saw Lix standing there, staring into the mirror that concealed the elevator as if she didn't recognize her own reflection. "What's wrong with..." Then I saw the little slip of yellow paper. "What? Is it out of order or-" And then I _read_ the little slip of yellow paper.**

"That might have come in handy before you did all the questioning squirt," Abby says to the book  
"That was probably the best night of my life that year...well you know besides..." Bex trails off which definitely surprises me. She always knows how to finish, but when I look between Bex and Liz I can tell that there is something that they are not sharing**.  
**"We'll you guys did very well that night. Considering that you had no training."**  
**

**_SOPHOMORE C.O CLASS CANCELED.  
MEET OUTSIDE TONIGHT. 7:00.  
DON'T WEAR YOUR UNIFORMS!  
-SOLOMON_**

A confused look crosses my eyes and I try to hide back on the emotionless mask that is starting to crack.  
**_  
_Bex's reflection appeared beside mine, and our eyes locked. I started to rip the note from the mirror, to save it as a piece of Gallagher Academy history, because two things were extraordinary about it. First, I'd never even _hear_ of a class being canceled, much less witnessed it myself. Second, Joe Solomon had just invited fourteen girls to go on what amounted to a midnight stroll.**

Joe laughs along with the other adults and I join in. And I thought these girls were supposed to be geniuses. **  
**

** Things were about to get interesting. I've seen Liz freak out about assignments before, **

Causing a small blush to form on the blond in question.**  
**

**but that day at lunch, she was as white as the salt in the shaker as she went over every tiny, perfectly punctuated line of her CoveOps notes-stopping occasionally to cinch her eyes together as if she were trying to read the answers on top of her head. (Maybe she was. With Liz's head, _anything_ is possible.)**

**"Awww, why thank you." Liz gushes.  
**

** "Liz, _est-ce qu'il-y-a une epreuve de CoveOps dont je ne connais pas?"_ I asked, thinking that if there was a CoveOps test I didn't know about, someone should really bring me into the loop. But Liz thought I was trying to be funny.**

"I was just a little nervous."  
"A _Little! _You were bloody freaking out!" **  
**

** "_Tu-ne la consideras pas serieuse?" _she nearly yelled. "_Tu sais qu'est-ce qui se passe ce soir!"_**

"She really doesn't like it when people ask her that question, you know that Liz." Macey says.  
"I know. I just was freaking out." While the girls continue there conversation I notice that Joe and Mrs. Morgan are not talking. They both have glazed over eyes and are staring into the distance. I scoot over and tap their shoulders. They look at me and shake it off. I fell pretty bad for them. Cammie is like a daughter to Joe and _is _a daughter to Rachel.

** Of course I _was_ taking it seriously, but Liz wasn't about to believe that, so I abandoned our French assignment and whispered, "No, Liz, I _don't_ know what's going to happen tonight." "_Exactement!" _she cried, leaning closer. "Anything in these books could be _out there_!" she said, as if we were dropping into an actual war zone and not our own backyard.**

"I would never take you to a war zone on your _first_ mission. Possibly your fifth." Joe says jokingly.**  
**

** "Or it could be something" -she looked around and then leaned closer- "_not in the books!"_ I seriously thought she might throw up, especially when Bex leaned over and said, "I bet we're going to bust up a drug cartel that's operating out of a nightclub."**

"Wow Bex, just wow." I shake my head, laugh, and re open the book.**  
**

** (Because she saw that once on an episode of _Alias._) Liz gulped, and her knuckles went white as she gripped a flash card. "It won't be anything like that, Liz," I whispered. But by this time the entire sophomore class was staring. "Why?" Tina demanded. "What do you know? Did your mother tell you something?" **

"Wrong choice of words around the wrong person." Macey says.  
"Girls be nice to one of your sisters. She could very well save your life one day." Macey looks down and one single tear drips from her cheek and falls to the floor.  
"She didn't mean like you and Ms. Morgan, Macey." Solomon reassures Macey. I immediately know that Macey had thought about one steamy day in Boston.

**"No!" I said, wishing I hadn't gotten them started. "I don't know anything." "So Solomon didn't ask your mother for two helicopters, three stun guns, and a dozen Brazilian passports?"**

I think I can speak for everyone when I say that that was ridiculous**  
**

** But before I could respond to Tina's ridiculous question, the main doors opened, and the seventh-grade class came in, doing a lot of _bon jour_ing-"hello" being one of the few phrases they knew-and the sophomore class forgot about me and went back to what they had been doing for a week-watching Macey McHenry,**

"Well, Yippee." I doubt I need to mention the sarcasm.**  
**

** She was the first person to ever combine black fingernail polish with a Peter Pan-collared white blouse (that's not verified or anything-just a guess), and her diamond nose ring looked like a twenty-thousand-dollar zit,**

eye roll from the girl in question**  
**

** but to an outsider, Macey McHenry might have seemed like one of us. She walked through the Grand Hall like she owned the place (as usual), picked up a plain green salad with no dressing (as usual), and walked to our table. Then she plopped down next to Bex and said, "The munchkins annoy," **

A small smile is visible on Liz, Bex, and Macey's faces. I bet they can recall this day perfectly.**  
**

**which was totally _not _usual. Up to that point, I'd heard Macey say things like "You're in my light," and "If you're gonna have plastic surgery, you might want to try my mother's guy in Palm Springs." (Needless to say, Mr. Smith didn't write down the number.)**

"Again! Trying. To. Be. Helpful."**  
**

** But there she was, sitting with us. Acting like one of us! Liz said, " _Je me demande pourquoi elle a decide a parler a nous aujourd'hui. Comme c'est bizarre!"_ But I didn't know why Macey was feeling so talkative, either. Before I could respond, Macey turned to Liz and snapped, "I don't want to talk to you either freak." **

My heads whips in the direction of one Macey McHenry. Her face is facing the ground and regret is shown in what you can see of her eyes. I would never have imagined Macey to say something like that. But I never _knew_ Macey until her second semester with these girls.**  
**

**I was just starting to process the fact that even cosmetic heiresses who get kicked out of a lot of private schools speak pretty good French, when Macey leaned closer to Liz, who leaned away. "Tell me," Macey said in the worst imitation Southern accent I've ever heard, "how can someone who's supposed to be so smart sound so stupid?"**

"And probably one of the best decisions in my life, no offense Macey." Bex says, obviously there is something I am missing here.**  
**

** Liz's pale face turned instantly red as tears came to the corners of her eyes. Before I knew what was happening, Bex had flown form her seat, pinned Macey's right arm behind her back with one hand, and grabbed that diamond nose ring with the other so fast that I said a quick prayer of thanks that the British are on our side **

A small amount of chuckles to that. When it comes to the Baxters, we should be glad.**  
**

**(well, assuming we never revisit the Revolutionary War). "I know your three years late, but let me give you a real quick, important lesson," Bex said in English (probably because it is harder to sound scary in French). But the strangest thing was happening-Macey was smiling-almost laughing, and Bex totally didn't know what to do. The rest of the hall was slowly going quiet, as if someone somewhere was turning the volume down. By the time the teachers stopped talking,**

"Wow we really are the most talkative," Mrs. Morgan says.  
"As much as it pains me to say it...You were right Abby." Joe says.  
"Now normally I would tell you I told you so..._so..._ I told you so!"**  
**

** Bex still had ahold of Macey, I had leaned across the table to grab ahold of Bex, and Liz had a death grip on a flash card that listed the top five places you should go to look for black market explosives in St. Pettersburg. "Rebecca," said a male voice. I turned away from the tight lipped smirk that was spreading across Macey's face to see Joe Solomon standing behind me, speaking across the table to Bex, who was slowly allowing blood to creep back into Macey's arm. "I understand you could get into trouble for that," he said. It's true. Gallagher Girls don't fight in the hallways. We don't slap and we don't shove. But mostly, we don't use the skills of the sisterhood against the sisters. Ever. It's a testament to how universally despised and viewed as an outsider Macey was that Bex wasn't immediately jumped from ten directions.**

**"Nice just nice."  
"Well Macey, we don't like outsiders." Liz shrugs.  
**

** But Mr. Solomon was an outsider, too. **

"What was that again Liz?" I ask with a smirk.  
"Nothing!" She squeaks in a manner that proves it's not 'nothing'.**  
**

**Maybe that's why he said, "If you're so eager to show off, you and your friends can take point tonight." He looked at Liz and me.**

"You know, Ms. Baxter that even if you didn't attack Ms. McHenry I still would have had your group take point."  
"You just wanted to see Cammie in action." Abby waves him off.  
"Correct again Abby." The Headmistress says.**  
**Almost in unison the girls stomachs rumble. Whoa...It's already four o'clock, and we haven't eaten in nine hours.  
"I think it might be time for a break." Joe says.  
I slowly put the book down so the spine is facing up and its left on the page we stopped at. In a line we leave the room, me being the last one out.

I turn to shut the door, but before I do my gaze focuses on the empty, clean, and made bed of a girl named Cameron Morgan.

With a sigh the door closes, and I jog to catch up to Bex.**  
**


	7. Chapter 5 part two

**DON'T KILL ME! MY FAMILY SOMEHOW MANAGED TO BRAKE THREE COMPUTERS IN TWO WEEKS. I am acctuall typing this on a computer with a cracked screen attatched to my Tv. So the print is huge. I am betting now that I finallly updated you want me to shut up and get on with the story...**

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Gallagher Girls, despite how awesome that would be.**

* * *

We grabbed a quick bite to eat from the kitchen and came right back. I picked up the book and immediatly found where we left off and begam to read as everyone settled in.

**"Good luck."**

"You being nice? The world must be ending!" I turn to Joe with a fake shocked expression and Liz has to stifle a giggle.  
"Rachel , the standards here are really falling if you are letting him go here." Joe says to Headmistress Morgan.  
I smirk as I answer, "Touche."**  
**

**It wasn't a cheery, break-a-leg "good luck," though. It was a watch-out-or-you'll-have-your-legs-broken "good luck."**

"That sounds more like Joe." Abby laughs along with the girls  
"I agree wholeheartedly." Mrs. Morgan says with a mocking smile.  
"What is this...Pick on the teacher day?" Said teacher asks.  
"Possibly..." Macey says mysteriously.**  
**

**Liz went back to her flash cards, but Bex and I stared at each other**

"Stalker-ish much?" Macey laughs at the wording, and I contradict her.  
"No Spy-ish."**  
**

**across the table as our faces morphed from sheer terror to uncontrolled excitement. For Gallagher Girls, leading a mission is no punishment-that's the gold-freaking-star!**

"Obviously!" Bex says in a _duh!_ voice.  
I roll my eyes a habit I must have picked up from Cammie.**  
**

**Only a little of the dread lingered in the back of my mind**

"Good." Joe nods, "Never lose focus and control and never underestimate."  
"Like how you underestimated us and got beat by Anna Fetterman?" Bex says tilting her head slightly.  
"Rebecca I assure you that I never underestimated you girls I just forgot that you guys are smaller than the seniors who had taken the same test only days before."  
"Sure..." I say in a manner that it is obvious I am being sarcastic.**  
**

**as I realized that we were about to play with live ammo-maybe in both the literal and figurative senses of the word. **

"We never introduce Gallagher Girls to live ammo until Senior year but it is a controversial topic. Most don't think it necessary." Abby informs us.  
"Why do you think it's controversial girl?" Solomon asks the semi circle.  
"Because they are live?" Macey gives it a shot.  
"Because they are offense not defense?" Liz tries.  
"No..."  
"Because they make you lazy, if you need a gun it's too late for one to help." Bex says.** (A/N Something along the lines of what happens in GG5, Ally Carter wrote it. I just changed it a bit =))  
**"Correct Ms. Baxter."**  
**

**Macey returned to her salad while Mr. Solomon added, ****_"Et n'oubliez pas, mesdemoiselles, ce soir vous este des civils-ressemlez-y."_****Oh, yeah, just what I needed-fashion advice from Joe Solomon himself.**

"I agree squirt, he has low to no fashion sense." Abby says.  
"Hey!" But she ignores him, and continues,  
"Now that we have that straightened out, continue."**  
**

**The Grand Hall went back to normal, but I doubt that any of the sophomores, besides Macey, took another bite. **

"Gasp! You're actually eating!"  
"Shut it Goode."

**As if we hadn't known it before, Joe Solomon had just reminded us that we'd soon be venturing out from behind out comfortable walls, operating on our own for the first time in our superspy lives. Four years off training had all come down to this, and I for one didn't have a thing to wear. **

"Oh No! It's a disaster!" Bex says in fake drama. I decided to join in.  
"How will we live!"

**I'm not sure how it happened, but at some point between one P.M. and six forty-five, the sophomore class from the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women morphed from a group of spies-in-training into a bunch of teenage girls. **

"Shocking! I mean it's not like it's a all-girls school for teenagers." Joe says shaking his head. Abby hid back a snicker and gives him a high five.

**It was pretty scary. **

"Terrifying!" Abby laughs.

**Liz spent her afternoon becoming the textbook version of what an undercover operative should look like,**

Liz blushes and I had to laugh..._I mean how old was this textbook_...

**copying everything from the patent leather purse to the pillbox hat. **

_That answers that. _Smirking I continue to read

**(It was a pretty old textbook.) Then the hallways started reverberating with terrifying yells of "Have you seen my black boots?" and "Does anyone have any hair spray?"I was seriously starting to worry about the fate of national security.**

"It is a horrifying thought that these girls are going to be in charge of the nation."

**In our suite, Bex looked awesome (as usual),**

"Why thank you!"

** Liz looked ridiculous (but try telling her that)**

"HEY!"

**and Macey was looking at an old Cosmo as if determining whether green is the new black was a matter of life or death.**

"It was important ant the time! Gosh!"  
"STOP INTERUPTING ME EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE!" I want to find out what happened since this is the report I was not present in, and I didnt even really know Cammie back then.

**All I could do was sit on my bed in my old jeans and a black knit top my mom once wore to parachute onto the top of the Iranian Embassy,**

"So that's who the top belonged to..." Macey says  
"Did you really do the Mrs. Morgan?" Bex asks  
"It's..." But Abby intterupts,  
"Let me take a guess... It's Classified?" We all enter at the last word.  
"Possibly..."

** and watch the clock tick then Tina came busting into our room. "Which one?" she asked, holding a pair of black leather pants and short skirt in front of her. I was on the verge of saying, neither, when Eva Alvarez ran in."Do these go? I don't know if these go!" Eva held up a pair of high-heeled boots that made my feet hurt just by looking at them."Um, Eva, can you run in those?"**

"It doesn't matter as long as I look FABULOUS!" I joke.

** I before Eva could answer, I heard someone say, "They're all the rage in Milan." I looked around. I counted heads. And then it dawned on me who was speaking. Macey stared at us over the top of her magazine, and added, "If you want to know." **

"Why did you hae to put your input in! It got the entier Sophomore class into our dorm." Liz complains.  
"Well sorry, I guess I could have let you go as fashion disasters then."  
"So that's why they all looked so...how do I put this without being mean...Interesting." Joe says smirking at the memory.

**Within minutes, half the sophomore class was in our little suite, and Macey was telling Tina, "You know, lip liner is supposed to go on the lips," and Tina was actually listening! I mean, this is the same girl who had single-handedly started the Macey-is-Mr. Smith's-illegitimate-daughter rumor.**

"WHAT!" I cringe at the shreak. But continued to read so we didn't have a Macey Meltdown.

**Little did we know she was one fashion emergency away from turning to the enemy! Courtney was borrowing earrings; Anna was trying on jackets; and I wasn't sure if I would ever feel safe going into hostile territory with any of them ever again. "You know, Eva, what blends in Milan might stick out in Roseville,"**

"Pfft, like they are going to listen. Nice try Squirt."

** I tried, but she didn't care."You know, guys, hiding in plain sight requires looking plain!" I said, but Kim Lee was wriggling out of a halter top and nearly knocked my head off with her flailing arms."You know, I really don't think he's taking us to the prom!" I shouted, and Anna put Macey's gorgeous formal gown back into the closet. **

"Yeah I am going to take thirteen girls to prom."  
"Okay, not a thought I wanted in my head but thanks anyway." Abby says miming gagging, and Liz giggles.  
"Your just jealous that you arent one of the thirteen girls, Abbigail." Joe smirks,  
"Gross! No!"

**I'm the chameleon! I wanted to cry. I'm the CoveOps legacy! I'd been preparing for this night my entire life-doing drills with my dad, asking my mom to tell me stories, becoming the girl nobody sees. But now I was drifting deeper and deeper into the shadows until I was standing in the middle of my own room, watching my closest friends swarm around our gorgeous new guest, and I was completely invisible**

"I noticed you.." Liz squeaks.  
"Sorry, I just kinda wanted them to like me..." Macey whispers staring at the floor.

**"Lose the earrings," Macey said, pointing to Eva. "Tuck in the shirt," she told Anna, then turned to Courtney Bauer and said, "What died in your hair?" (Courtney does have a tendency to over-gel sometimes.)**

"Sometimes?" Macey askes.

**Bex was sitting with Liz on her bed, and they both looked as amazed as I felt."Hey!" I cried again, to no avail, so I called upon my superspy heritage, and seconds later I was whistling loudly enough to make the cows come home (literally-that's why Grandpa Morgan taught me how to do it).**

"It comes in hand for both spying and farming." Rachel jokes.  
"Buy it now and we will include absolutely free, absolutely nothing... Only Nineteen, Nintey-Nine." Abby finishs.

**My classmates finally turned away from Macey, and I said, "It's time."A silence had fallen over the room, but then a longer, deeper quiet stretched were through playing dress-up, and everyone knew it.**

"But dress-up is so fun." I complain.  
"We can dress-up like pretty princesses." Joe laughs.  
"Don't worry Joe we all knew you had princess dresses in your room, it's okay to come out of the closet now." Abby says in all seriousness, until a smile creeps up and the girls and I burst into laughter.  
Joe threw a murderess glance at Abby and then at me for not getting him out of it by reading.

**"Hello, ladies."The words were right, but the voice coming to us through the shadows was wrong in so many ways that I can't possibly describe it here. Really, it would be cruel to all the trees who would have to give their lives for me to explain what it was like to be expecting Joe Solomon and get Mr. Mosckowitz.**

"Such a dissapointment." Bex sighs.  
"A real tragity." I shook my head slowly.  
"It was absloutely horrible." Macey agrees, and we colapsed in a fit of chuckles.  
"Deffinitely pick-on-the-teacher-day." Joe mumbles.

**"Don't you all look very..." He was staring, mouth gaping, as if he'd never seen push- up bras or eyeliner before. "...nice," he finally said, then slapped his hands together, I guess to stop the nervous shaking. But he still couldn't steady his voice as he said, "Well, very big night. Very big. For..." He hesitated. "...all of us."**

"It was his first mission." Rachel informes us even though we all knew that.

**Mr. Mosckowitz pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and stared beyond the lighted driveway of the mansion. Even I didn't know exactly what lay in that dark abyss. Sure, there are woods and jogging trails and a lacrosse field that is handy during Code Reds (and doubles as a great underground storage facility for the helicopters), but everyone knows the Gallagher Woods are a minefield-maybe literally-and I started shaking in my sensible if there are snipers? Or attack dogs ... or ... **

"A CAR!" Bex screams in terror interrupting my reading.  
"What?"  
"It said 'or', I was just filling in a guess."

**but before I could finish that thought, I heard crunching gravel and squealing tires, and turned around to see an Overnight Express truck roaring toward us. **

"Sorry Bex but you were wrong! It was a 'Truck', not a 'CAR'." Liz says.  
"Technicalities." Bex says rolling her eyes.

**Gee, what's the package emergency? I wondered. But when the driver's-side door flew open and Mr. Solomon jumped out and yelled, "Get in!" I realized we were the , my mind flashed back to one of Liz's note cards. COVERT OPERATION RULE #1: DON'T HESITATE. Mr. Mosckowitz opened the cargo doors and I climbed inside, imagining that the truck was like our teachers-it had led a fascinating and dangerous life before it retired and came to us. But I didn't see a wall of monitors and headsets-none of the stuff the trucks have in movies-only crates and crates of packages.**

"Sorry to disspoint girls, but I had little time to plan this." Joe says glaring at Rachel  
"You asked me the day of!" She defends.

**That's when the truck became even cooler, because I'm pretty sure Mr. Solomon had stolen it!**

"Maybeeee..." Joe says mysteriously.

**"First rule," he warned as we settled inside, "don't touch any of the packages."Then Mr. Solomon crawled in behind us, leaving Mr. Mosckowitz outside looking up at him like a water boy who'd just been asked to hold the star quarterback's helmet."Harvey?" Mr. Solomon said impatiently but still soft enough that he sounded like a pretty nice guy, **

"Joe? Nice? What has the world come to!"  
Abby gets a nice elbow in the ribs, and I continue.

**"clock's ticking." He tossed Mr. Moskowitz the keys."Oh!" This seemed to wake him up. "Yep. Sure thing. I'll see you"-he pointed toward all of us-"out there.""No, you won't, Harvey," Mr. Solomon said. "That's the idea."Call me crazy, but this wasn't how I'd always pictured the first time I'd be in the dark with a guy who looks like Joe Solomon. (And I'm pretty sure I speak for the entire sophomore class on that one.)**

"T.M.I." I say along with the adults.

**"Operatives in deep cover will be given false histories," he fired at us through the dark. "These histories, including names, dates of birth, and favorite kindergarten teachers, and are called ...""Legends!" Liz blurted. A test is a test, in Liz's mind, and as long as there was a Q&A, she could handle this mission business."Very good, Ms. Sutton," he said, and even in the dark I knew Liz was a number two lead pencil away from heaven. **

I turned my head...interesting saying...I could use this as blackmail.  
I turned to Liz who was completely red."

**"For this mission, ladies, you will be posing as normal teenage girls. Think you can handle that?" I'm not sure, but I think that might have been Joe Solomon's idea of a joke-but it was soooo not funny**

"I can be funny!" He protests.  
Abby and I scoff. But at his glare I reopen the book.

** because, if there's one thing we're not, it's normal. But he obviously didn't care about any of that, because he just plowed on. "When conducting manual surveillance on a subject in a three-man rotation, the person with visual contact is the ...""Eyeball!""Correct. The person within sight of the eyeball is the...""Backup.""And the final person ...""The reserve."**

"Thank you Liz for keeping us away from answering the questions." Bex says. And I think she is being truthful.

**"Very good. Now remember, rotate frequently, but not too frequently. Vary your pace and spacing, and above all..."I felt the truck come to a stop. The engine turned all, what? I wanted to cry. The most important night of my life, and he forgets the punch line!**

Laughter echos though the room, and smile. Only my Gallagher Girl

** A small light came on in the ceiling of the truck, bathing us in an eerie, orange-yellow glow, and I heard music, the kind a merry-go-round makes, and I wondered if my whole life from that point on would be a house of . Solomon moved a television monitor to one of the shelves and fiddled with some wires. I was expecting a view of the world outside (or at least something from the WB), but instead I saw what I'd been seeing for years-the fourteen faces of the sophomore class."In the field, ladies, you can never expect to have things go as planned. I fully expect you to master the ability to improvise. For example, tonight's mission requires a vehicle not owned by the Gallagher Academy. So"-he motioned around us-"I made alternative arrangements." (Yep. He definitely stole it!)He passed earpieces to Bex, Liz, and me, and said, "Basic comms units. Don't be afraid to use them." Then he showed us a pair of tortoiseshell eyeglasses, **

"Liz's" Abby guesses.

**an I [HEART] Roseville button, **

"Bex's" Macey inputs.

**and a necklace with a silver cross.**

"Cammie's" I finnish.

** "There are cameras contained within these three items, which will allow us to follow and critique your progress." The cross swung from his forefinger and, on the screen, the image of my classmates swayed back and forth. "These are for our benefit tonight- not yours. It's a just teaching exercise, ladies, but don't expect us to come to your rescue."**

"Joe..." Rachel warns  
"If they came then yeah I would help."  
"Nice save." Abby whispers.

**Okay, I'll admit it. I was starting to get a little freaked out at that point, but seriously, who can blame me? We were all feeling it-I could tell by the way Bex's leg twitched and Liz kept wringing her hands. Every girl in the back of that truck was on edge (and not just because we were up close and personal with Mr. Solomon, either).**

Joe shivers, it's small but I notice it. It must be creepy to have teenage girls fawning over you if you are a teacher.

** Even though Liz, Bex, and I were the only ones going outside, we were all more than Gallagher Girls right then-we were operatives on a mission, and we knew there would come a day when way more than grades would be riding on what we were about to learn. The carnival music suddenly got louder as the back door opened, and the first thing I saw was a bright orange cap as Mr. Mosckowitz peeked in. "They're close," he . Solomon plugged a wire into a speaker, and in the next second I heard my mother's voice joining the carnival music. "It's great weather for running."My blood went cold. Anyone but Mom, I prayed. Anyone but know the phrase Be careful what you wish for! Oh yeah, I'm now a really big believer in that one, because no sooner had the words crossed my mind than Mr. Solomon turned to us and said, "There are three types of subjects who will always be the most difficult to surveil." He ticked them off on his fingers. "People who are trained. People who suspect they may be followed. And people you know." He paused. "Ladies, this is your lucky night." He pulled a black-and-white photo from the pocket of his jacket and held it up. The face was new to us, but the voice that came blaring through the speaker saying, "Yes. I should probably get back into that habit myself," was one we knew well."Oh, bollocks!" Bex exclaimed, and Liz dropped her note cards."Smith!" I cried.**

"It was kinda shocking." Bex says.

** "You expect us to recon Professor Smith?"I couldn't believe it! Not only was it our first mission ever, but he honestly expected us to tail a man who had thirty years of experience, and who had seen us every school day since seventh grade, and who, worst of all, was the single most paranoid human being on the planet! (Seriously. I mean, he's got the plastic surgery bills to prove it.)A team of CIA all-stars would probably get made within twenty minutes.**

"Depends on the agents." Mrs. Morgan says.

** Three Gallagher Girls didn't stand a chance. After all, once a guy's heard you give a report on the trade routes of Northern Africa, he's probably gonna wonder why you're sitting behind him on the merry-go-round!"But... but... but... he never leaves the grounds," I protested, finally finding my words. "He would never enter an unsecured area on a whim." Oooh, good one,**

"And she's catching on.." Abby comments.

** I thought, as I struggled to recall Liz's flash cards. "This goes against the subject's pattern of behavior!"But Mr. Solomon only smiled. He knew it was an impossible mission-that was why he'd given it to us. "Trust me, ladies," he said with somber respect, "no one knows Mr. Smith's patterns of behavior." He tossed a thick file folder toward us. "The one thing we do know is that tonight is the Roseville town carnival, and Mr. Smith, for good or bad, is a man who loves his funnel cakes."**

"Now I'm hungry." Bex complains.  
"We just ate!" Macey exclaims.

**"Well, have fun!" My mother's voice came blaring through the speakers. I imagined her waving at her colleague as he turned at the edge of town. I heard her breathing become deeper, almost felt her cross trainers as they struck the dark pavement."Your mission," Mr. Solomon said, "is to find out what he drinks with those funnel cakes."I'd been waiting my whole life for my first mission and it all came down to what? Carbonated beverages?! **

"Drinks are so important in the field." I say jokingly.

**"Subject's at the firehouse, Wise Guy,"**

The girls chuckle at Solomon's code name.  
"I didnt't pick it out! Matt and Abby did." He said glaring at Abby.

** Mom whispered. "He's all yours." And then, just like that, my mother and her watchful eyes were gone, leaving us alone in the dark with Joe "Wise Guy" Solomon and a mathematician in a bright orange cap . Solomon thrust the necklace toward me and said, "In or out?"I grabbed the cross, knowing I would need it.**

"Cliff hanger." I said as I shut the book. So we haven't met Jimmy,...yet.

* * *

**Thank you for not killing me! =) Please review. and you can yell at me for not updating fast enough... I do deserve it. )=.**

**Anyway! **

**REVIEW!**

**-XSoftballxIsxMyxLifeX**


	8. Chapter 6

**I know I know. I am a terrible person for not updating. My life has been so messed up. If you want to know PM me and I'll give you the story about it. So anyway back to the story I am finally updating and hope to finish this story and not give up. So thank you soo much to all who have fallowed this story and put up with my absence. and a little BTW ny spell check is messing up so If there are any mistakes they are all my own. I hope you all enjoy the story. And first I want to give three 'thank you's to a few reviewers... the first is...**

**Firefly264: Is that a Potter Puppet Pals Reference... ;) I love HP!**

**TeamEdward4EVA-ZAMMIE4EVA: Even though I am not a big fan of Twilight I must thank you for all your Reviews on each Chapter. ;) Even though your recent one scared me 0.o lol jk. Thanks for reviewing!**

**and last but certainly not least...**

MrsGoodeANot-So-TrainedMonkey: Who was the one who PM'ed me and reminded me that I haven't updated in two months! (Woops... ) So thank you sooo much for reminding me...this story would continue to have hid in the shadows without you! ;) thanks girlie!

* * *

**In this chapter Bex will be reading. So It will be from her point of view.  
Disclaimer: I do not own the GG series and do not get a million dollars every time someone buys Ally's books. :) **

******Bex's POV******

She may be my best friend but I could so kill her right now! Not exactly am I mad that she left it's more of the fact that she left me behind. I miss her soooooo much. She is the glue that binds us all together, she is our base and without her we all crumble.

I feel like I am becoming so distant from everyone but Zach, we both can't live without her our lives are nothing. All we have left of her is these stupid books! Why would these even matter, I mean all that's in this book is Cammie all goo-goo over Josh.

I guess this is a way to help us understand a little bit more about why Cam left. I fell Zach nudge my side and I open the report to the next section and start to read.

**I love Bex and Liz. Seriously, I do.**

"Awwww, thanks." Lizzie smiles and blushes  
"What about me?" Macey asks with a fake sad face.**  
**

** But when your mission is to go unnoticed at the Roseville town carnival while trailing an operative who's as good as Mr. Smith, a genius in Jackie O shades and a girl who could totally be Miss America (even though she's British) are not exactly what I'd call ideal backup.**

"Ummmm...Excuse Me!" I demand, and Macey laughs with Zach.  
"I think Ms. Morgan meant it more as covert backup than skill backup. No offense, but you two don't blend in as well as Cameron does." Mr. Solomon explains, once a teacher always a teacher.**  
**

** "I have eyeball, " Bex said, as I lurked across the town square by the dunking booth. Every minute or so, I'd hear a splash and applause behind me. People kept walking by carrying corn dogs and caramel apples-lots of calories on sticks-and I suddenly remembered that while our chef makes an awesome creme brulee, his corn dogs really do leave something to be desired.**

"It is so true, his food is delicious but no one can match a carnival/circus corn dog." Abby says.  
Solomon's eyebrows scrunch up when Abby mentions the circus, like something in the back of his head is trying to tell him the answer to something.**  
**

** So I bought one-a corn dog, that is. Now, here's where you might start thinking-Hey, who is she to eat during a mission? Or, isn't it careless to stand there smearing mustard all over a deep-fried weenie**

Me and the girls laugh our heads off and Zach looks at us shaking his head but smiling, while the adults look at us with the _Seriously-you-are-teens-now_ look.**  
**

** when there are operatives to tail? But that's the thing about being a pavement artist (a term first used to describe me when I was nine and successfully tailed my father through the mall to find out what he was going to buy me for Christmas),**

Mrs. Morgan, Abby and Mr. Solomon smile sadly. " I always told her there were three rules. No listening in on Mommies and Daddies conversation, No sneaking food and No tailing Mommy. She found the loop-hole." Mrs. Morgan says smiling. **(You gotta love loop-holes! ;) )**  
"Matt told me all about it, he was proud and mad and embarrassed. He was proud that his daughter was following in his footsteps, mad that she followed him, and embarrassed because he never saw her and You got mad at him because Cammie knew what she was getting." Joe laughs, aiming the last sentence towards Mrs. Morgan.**  
**

** you can't be ducking behind Dumpsters and dodging into doorways all the time. Seriously, how covert is that? Real pavement artists don't hide-they blend. So when you start craving a corn dog because every third person you see is eating one, then bring on the mustard!**

"Only Cam." Mrs. Morgan says with a smile and tears in her eyes, and Abby switches places with Solomon and gave her a hug.**  
**

** (Besides, even spies have to eat. ) Bex was on the far side of the square, milling around outside the library while the Pride of Roseville marching band warmed up. Liz was supposed to be behind me, but I couldn't see her. (Please tell me she didn't bring her molecular regeneration homework... ) Mr. Smith was probably thirty feet in front of Bex, being Joe Ordinary, which was totally creeping me out.**

"It was freaking us out too." Liz says and I nod my head, it was a little creepy to see the most paranoid person you know act normally.**  
**

** Every few moments I'd catch a flash of his black jacket as he strolled along the streets, looking like a soccer dad who was worried about the mortgage, and I remembered that of all the false facades at the Gallagher Academy, the best belonged to its people. "How you doing up there, Duchess?" I asked, and Bex shot back, "I hate that bloody code name."**

"I do, I really do. I never should have let Liz come up with my codename."** (In my head Liz came up with Bex's codename, Bex came up with Cam's, and Cam came up with Liz's)  
**"I think I did a wonderful job with it because you are from England and the English have a queen, but it is called a Duchess and the Duchess is..."  
"We get it Liz thank you." Macey interrupts**.  
**"Who came up with your codename McHenry, and what is it?" Zach asks.  
"The secret service and none of your business Goode."**  
**

** "Okay, Princess, " I said. "Cam-" Bex started, but before she could finish her threat, I heard Liz's voice in my ****ear. "Chameleon, where are you?" Liz complained. "I lost you again. " "I'm over by the dunk tank, Bookworm. " "Wave your arms or something. " I could almost hear Liz standing on tiptoes, peering through the crowd. "That kind of defeats the purpose now, doesn't it?" Bex noted.**

"It kinda does..." Abby says.  
"Yeah.. cough Joe cough." Mrs. Morgan says.  
"Well sorry, but I lost him and it was a very important mission." Our teacher defends himself.**  
**

** "But how am I supposed to follow you, following Smith if I can't- Oh, never mind, " Liz said. "I see you. " I looked around and thought, Oh, yeah, I can see why I'd be tough to spot. I was sitting on a bench in plain sight. Seriously. I couldn't have been more out in the open if I'd had a big neon sign over my head. But that's the thing most people don't get about surveillance. No one-not even one of my best friends-was going to look twice at an ordinary-looking girl in last year's clothes sitting on a park bench eating a corn dog. If you can be still enough, and common enough, then it's really easy to be invisible.**

"Really... that's it. I thought someone injected her with Chameleon DNA." Liz says, and it reminds me of her tests in eighth grade.  
"Yes and that was the cause of the no Blood tests anymore." Mrs. Morgan reminds her. Lets just say Lizzie tripped over a cord and dug the needle into Cams skin. It took two nurses to get it out and Cam and I were laughing while Lizzie was super pale and non-stop apologizing.**  
**

** "He's flipping, " Bex said softly, and I knew it was showtime. Roseville might look like Mayberry, but Professor Smith wasn't taking any chances. He was doubling back, so I got off my bench and eased toward the sidewalk, knowing Smith was heading toward me on the opposite side of the square, past Bex, who managed to duck her head and act nonchalant. That's when a lot of people would have lost it. An amateur would have looked at her watch and spun around as if she'd just remembered some place she needed to be, but not Bex-she just kept walking. Half the town must have turned out for the carnival, so there was lots of pedestrian cover on the sidewalk between Mr. Smith and me (a very good thing).**

As I was reading I noticed no one was talking they were all on the edge of their seats trying to hear all about our first mission and Cams part in it.**  
**

** People don't see things nearly as quickly as they see motion, so when Professor Smith turned, I stayed perfectly still. When he moved, I waited five seconds, then followed. But mostly, I remembered what my dad always said about ****how a tail isn't a string-it's a rubber band, stretching back and forth, in and out, moving independently of The Subject. When something interested me, I stopped. When someone said something funny, I laughed. When I passed an ice-cream stand, I bought some, all the while keeping Mr. Smith at the edge of my vision. But that's not to say it was easy. No way. In all the times I'd imagined my first mission, I'd always thought I'd be retrieving top secret files or something. Never once did I imagine that I'd be asked to tail my COW professor through a carnival and find out what he drinks with his funnel cakes. The crazy thing was that this was SO MUCH HARDER!**

"Oh My Gosh it really was. You had to be so careful of where you were going and what you were doing. It was so super hard." I say and Liz nods her head like no one had saw her in the first two seconds.**  
**

** Professor Smith was acting as if those KGB hitmen were already on their way to Roseville-using every countersurveillance technique in the book (or at least the books I've seen), and I realized how exhausting it must be to be him. He couldn't even go out for funnel cakes without "flipping" and "corner clearing" and "breadcrumbing" all the time. Once, things got really toasty, and I thought for sure he was going to make me, but I fell in behind a group of little old women. But then one of the women stumbled at the curb, and, instinctively, I reached out to help her.**

I notice Zach smile a little and I realize how quiet he is being and Macey sends me a look that says _Josh and Cammie._ Even though they relate in this book she meant them separate. Cammie's missing and now he gets to see why Cam was so stiff with Josh.**  
**

** Ahead of us, Professor Smith stopped in front of a darkened storefront, staring at the reflection in the glass, but I was twenty feet behind him and shrouded by a sea of gray hair and polyester-which was a good thing. But then the women all turned to face me-which was a bad thing. "Thank you, young lady, " the older woman said. She squinted at me. "Do I know you?" But just then, a voice blared in my ear. "Did we rotate?" Liz sounded close to panic. "Did we rotate the eyeball?" ****Professor Smith was getting away, heading back in Bex's direction, so I answered, "Yes, " but that only made the woman cock her eyebrow and stare harder. "I don't remember seeing you before, " the old woman said. "Sure you do, Betty, " one of the other women said, patting her friend on the arm. "She's that Jackson girl. " And that's why I'm the chameleon. I am the girl next door**

"That helps so much for her. It is unfair." Abby says**  
**

** (it's just that our doors have fingerprint-reading sensors and are bulletproof and all... ). "Oh! Is your grandmother out of the hospital yet?" the more fragile of the women asked. Okay, so I didn't know the Jacksons, much less how Granny was feeling, but Grandma Morgan had taught me that Chinese Water Torture is nothing compared to a grandmother who really wants to know something. I saw Professor Smith nearing Bex, but over my comms unit, Bex was laughing, saying, "Yeah, man. Go, Pirates!" as if she lived for Friday night football. Sure, Bex's definition of football might have been soccer, but boys were always boys, and a crowd of jersey-clad testosterone was assembling across the street.**

I was smiling and frowning, I loved to catch boys attention but I also wanted to be able to go unseen, but I can't I attract peoples attention so easily because of my looks. "No I meant it as American football." I say so people don't try to read my emotions.**  
**

** I didn't need surveillance photos to know who was at the center of the mob. The old women were staring at me as if I were a needle they were trying to thread, and I said the only thing I could think of. "Dr. Smith says she needs to go south-that she needs to be toasty. " I looked past the mob surrounding me and toward the one surrounding Bex, hoping she'd heard and understood that trouble was heading her way. My hopes dwindled, though, when I heard her say, "Yeah, I love tight ends. " "Isn't that nice?" the old woman said. "Does she know where she's going?" I saw Mr. Smith's dark jacket disappear past the pillars of the library's main entrance and then out of sight. "You know she's such a bookworm, " I said, hoping Liz was listening. "She can't ****wait to be near the library, just around the corner from the library, in fact, "**

"Nice very Nice." Solomon and Abby say together. And then they look at each other and Abby blushes a little.  
"Smart" Mrs. Morgan compliments  
"Impressive." Zach smiles. **  
**

** I said through gritted teeth, just as static and chaos filled my ears. I heard Bex mutter, "Oh, no!" Ahead of me, the football boys were heading in a pack down the street, but Bex wasn't with them. As far as I could see, Bex wasn't anywhere, and neither was Smith. "Sorry, ladies. Gotta go, " I snapped and hurried away. "Bookworm, " I said, "do you have them? I have lost visual with The Subject and the eyeball. I repeat. I have lost visual with The Subject and the... " I reached the library and looked in the direction where I'd last seen Mr. Smith, but all I saw was a long line of yellow streetlights. I weaved back through the crowd, circling the entire square, until I wound up right back where I'd started, in a vacant lot between a shoe store and City Hall, right behind the dunk tank. I should have been more aware of my surroundings, I know-Spy 101 and all that-but it was too late. We'd been so close ... Soooo close. I hadn't wanted to admit it to myself, but about the time I polished off that ice-cream cone, I'd honestly started imagining what it would feel like to have Joe Solomon say, "Nice job. " **

Solomon smiles a little, and Me and Liz Blush, we were thinking the same thing as Cammie was. Macey laughs at us, Mrs. Morgan and Abby smile and Zach just smirks. Gosh he is so annoying.**  
**

**But now they were gone-everyone-Smith, Bex, and Liz. I couldn't turn tail and run back to school-not then. We'd come too close. So I darted toward the funnel-cake stand, the one place we felt certain Smith would have to visit before the night was through, but I didn't pay attention to where I was going or how completely the Deputy Chief of Police filled the little seat above the dunk tank. I heard the crack of a baseball hitting metal, sensed movement out of the corner of my eye, but all the P&E training in the world wasn't enough to help me dodge the tidal wave that crashed over my shoulders.**

"Awww..." Lizzie says sadly  
"At least she wasn't wearing a white shirt right..." Macey says smiling. Zach glares at her.**  
**

** Yeah, that's right. My first covert operations mission was also my first wet T-shirt contest, and as I stood there shivering, I knew it would probably be my last of both. People were rushing toward me, offering towels, asking if they could give me a ride home. Yeah, I'm stealthy, I thought, as I thanked them as unmemorably as possible and darted away. Halfway down the sidewalk, I pulled a soggy twenty-dollar bill from my pocket, bought a Go Pirates! sweatshirt, and pulled it on. In my ear, the comms unit had gone from crackling static to dense nothing, and I realized with a thud that my little silver cross, though state-of-the-art, wasn't the waterproof edition. Bex's band of football jocks strolled by, but not a single eye looked my way. As a girl, I wouldn't have minded a little corner-of-the-eye checking out, but as a spy, I was totally relieved that the whole drowned-chic look didn't undermine my covertness too much. I walked toward the funnel-cake stand, knowing that at any minute I could turn the corner on disaster-and I guess in a way, I did. Bex and Liz were sitting together on a bench as Mr. Smith paced before them, and boy, was he scary just then.**

Liz and I grimace, He looked terrifying then. It was hard not to answer him and give up why we were there, but we knew Cam was still out there and we couldn't turn her in, we just hoped she could get the bottle and and get it to Mr. Solomon.**  
**

** His new face had always seemed strong, but I hadn't appreciated its hard lines until he leaned over Liz and yelled, "Ms. Sutton!" Liz started shrinking, but Bex crossed her arms and looked totally bored. "I want to know what you are doing here!" Smith ****demanded. "Ms. Baxter"-he turned to Bex-"you are going to tell me why you and Ms. ****Sutton have left campus. You are going to explain why you've been following me for thirty minutes, and ... " I watched his expression change as something dawned on him. "And you are going to tell me where Joe Solomon is right now. "**

"At least he knew you were out under my permission. It helped you guys a lot in the sense of not getting a detention. It didn't help your case of why you were caught though." Mr Solomon says. And I agree with him. We didn't get into too much trouble but we still lost some points on the mission because we were caught.**  
**

** Bex and Liz looked at each other for a long time before Bex turned back to Mr. Smith. "I had a craving for a corn dog. " Well, I have already pointed out the corn dog inadequacy of the Gallagher Academy food service team, but Mr. Smith didn't buy her argument, which was just as well. He wasn't supposed to. He'd heard her real message loud and clear-Bex and Liz weren't talking. Those are my girls.**

Liz and I smile at Cammie's words, that was the message I was sending, because like I already said Cam still had a chance and we wanted to give it to her to finish the mission.**  
**

** Then I remembered that I was probably supposed to be doing something! After all, the mission wasn't over yet-not really. There was still hope. Surely I could salvage some of it. Surely... I was really starting to hate Joe Solomon.**

"That was a rude way to change a sentence." Solomon says.  
All Abby can do is laugh at him in agreement with her niece.**  
**

** First he sends us out to tail a guy who was almost bound to catch at least one of us, and then he doesn't teach us what to do when we get caught! Was I supposed to cause a diversion and hope Bex and Liz could slip away?**

"It's an option." Abby says**  
**

** Was I supposed to find a weapon and jump Smith from behind?**

"Ummm...Noooo..." Mrs. Morgan says.**  
**

** Or was I simply supposed to stroll across the street and take my rightful place beside them on that bench of shame? **

"No, never!" Zach says.**  
**

**From the corner of my eye, I saw the Overnight Express truck cruise by. It could have stopped and an army could have swarmed in and saved the day, but that didn't happen; and I instantly knew why. The street was full of people who could never know the power of the girls on the bench. I could have saved the sisters, but not at the risk of the sisterhood. "Get up, " Mr. Smith told Liz. He tossed a Dr Pepper bottle into a nearby trash can. "We'll finish this discussion back at school. " I stayed in the shadows and watched Bex and Liz walk by. You know you're stealthy if your two best friends in the universe can pass within twenty feet of you and don't have a clue you're there. **

"We can never find her anyways. Even if we did know where she was I still wouldn't have seen her." Lizzie says.

** But it was for the best, I figured. After all, I was still a girl on a mission. I waited until they turned the corner, then I strolled across the street. No one looked twice at me. Not a soul stopped to ask my name or tell me how much I looked like my mother. I didn't have to see the look of instant, uncomfortable sadness in anyone's eyes as they realized I was Cammie Morgan-one of the Morgans- that I was the girl with the dead dad.**

The adults hang their heads and us kids go silent.**  
**

** On the streets of Roseville I was just a regular girl, and it felt so good I almost didn't want to pull a Kleenex from my pocket, reach into the trash can, and carefully retrieve the bottle Mr. Smith had thrown away-but I did it anyway. "Mission accomplished, " I whispered.**

"Partially." Solomon says.**  
**

** Then I turned, knowing it was time to go back to the world where I could be invisible, but never unknown. And that's when I saw him-a boy across the street- seeing me. **

"Josh?" Zach asks.  
"Yes." Macey  
"I think so." Me  
"If my calculations are correct... yes" Liz, duh.  
"So Jimmie has entered the picture." Zach, again.

* * *

**Done Finally. I think my new goal is to update once every two weeks. It will give me a chance to actually get the chapters finished without rushing.**

**-XSoftballxIsxMyxLifeX **


	9. Chapter 7

**Don't kill me! I am sooo busy in my life and Drama and uggg! maybe a more realistic goal for updating will be once a month... so yeah umm I guess Solomon will read this chapter... yeah I decided right now he will read it!  
**

**Okay I have decided to Dedicate this chapter to ... bookluver07 She has been amazingly supportive!  
**

**Disclaimer: I SO DO NOT OWN THE GALLAGHER GIRLS!  
**

* * *

******Solomon's POV****  
**

As much as I try to be professional I can't help but feel my heart break at all the sadness for this one girl who has changed so many lives for the better. Cameron Morgan is the glue that hold Macey, Elizabeth, and Rebecca together. And to be honest I miss her too, more than I would care to admit. She has been without a father for so long and I have not filled that position but have been a small father figure to her...

**In shock, **

I shake my head a little bit, always expect the unexpected.**  
**

**I dropped the bottle on the street, but it didn't break. As it rolled toward the curb, I bolted forward and tried to pick it up, but another hand beat me to it-a hand that was pretty big and decidedly boylike, and I'd be lying if I said there wasn't some inadvertent pinkie-brushing,**

"Awwwwwww!" Macey coo's. Out of the corner of my eye I see Zach tense and glare at Ms. McHenry,  
I suppress a chuckle and continue Cameron's report.**  
**

** which led to a tingly sensation similar to the one I get when we use Dr. Fibs temporary fingerprint modification cream (only way better)**

**I** can tell the Zach is trying his hardest to hide the feeling I can see brewing inside of him, I give him a small nudge in his side and he looks up at me and I see emotions so deep inside of him that he looks so broken, so lost, it's painful.**  
**

**I stood up, and the boy extended the bottle toward me. I took it. "Hi, there." He had one hand in the pocket of his baggy jeans, pressing down, as if daring the pants to slide off his hips and gather around his Nikes that had that too-white, first-day-of-school glow about them. "So, do you come here often?" he asked in a slightly self-mocking way.**

"Pffff... Soooo corny!" Rebecca and Macey said together and Elizabeth giggles.  
Macey turns and notices that Zach is struggling sooo hard to say nothing at all, she looks a little, sorry?

**I couldn't help myself-I smiled. "See, you don't even have to answer that, because I know all the trash cans in town, and while this is a very nice trash can, it doesn't look like the kind of trash can a girl like you would normally scavenge from."**

"It seems as though my niece has good tastes, this...boy...has a good sense of humor." Abby smiles, and I roll my eyes.  
"He does seem very funny." Macey comments and I realize she has never met..Josh?... in person.**  
**

** I opened my mouth to protest, but he went on. "Now, the trash cans on Seventh Street, those are some very nice trash cans."**  
**Mr. Solomon's lesson from the first day of class came back to me, so I noted the details: the boy was about five foot ten, and he had wavy brown hair, and eyes that would put even Mr. Solomon's to shame.**

Every single head in that room turns to me and I give them all questioning looks, and Abby laughs, and I glare at her in return...It's Kinda (okay VERY) creepy to hear your students say these things about you.  
"No offense, but I think Cammie likes Zach's eyes the most." Macey smiles at Zach**  
**

** But the thing I noticed most was how easily he smiled. I wouldn't even mention it except it seemed to define his entire face-eyes, lips, cheeks. It wasn't especially toothy or anything.**  
**It was just easy and smooth, like melting butter. But then again, I wasn't the most impartial judge of such things. After all, he was smiling at me. "That must not be an ordinary bottle," he said (while smiling, of course). I realized how ridiculous it must have looked. Under the warmth of that smile, I forgot my legend, my mission- everything-and I blurted the first thing that popped into my mind, "I have a cat!"**

"ahhhhh...Suzy." Zach smirks.  
"How did you find out about that?" Rebecca asks.  
"Spy."**  
**

** He raised his eyebrows, and I imagined him whipping out a cell phone to notify the nearest mental institution that I was on the loose in Roseville.**  
**"She likes to play with bottles," I rambled on, speaking ninety miles an hour. "But her last one broke, and then she got glass in her paw. Suzie! That's my cats name-the one with the glass in her paw-not that I have any other ones- cats, I mean, not bottles. That's why I needed this bottle. I'm not even sure she'll want another bottle, what with the-" "Trauma of having glass in her paw," he finished for me.**  
**I exhaled, grateful for the chance to catch my breath. "Exactly." Yeah, this is how a highly trained government operative behaves when intercepted on a mission. Somehow, I think the fact that the interceptor looked like a cross between a young George Clooney and Orlando Bloom might have played into that a little bit. (If hed looked like a cross between Mr. Clooney and, say, one of the hobbits, I probably would have been far more capable of coherent thought.)**  
**From the corner of my eye I saw the Overnight Express truck turn into an alley. I could sense it idling there-waiting on me-so I turned and started down the street, but not before the boy said, "So, you're new to Roseville, huh?" I turned back to him. Mr. Solomon probably wouldn't lay on the horn to tell a girl to hurry up, but even through my busted comms unit I could feel his frustration,**

"She was taking forever!" I complain.  
"We're girls Joe, get used to it." Rachel says smiling**.  
**"Umm, Hey, Last I checked I'm a dude!" The only other male in the room said.**  
**"You check?" Macey asks, **(My friend did this to me once! Ugh it was soo embarrassing! I don't check! I yelled him..it was kinda funny)** and I can't help it, I laugh and so does everyone else...all Zach can mange to splutter out is, "Oh, Shut up!"

** hear the ticking clock. "I'm...um, how did you know that?" He raised his shoulders up and down an inch or two as he shoved his hands farther into his pockets. "I've lived in Roseville all my life. Everyone I know has lived in Roseville all their life. But I've never seen you before." Maybe that's because I'm the girl no one sees, I wanted to say. But he had seen me, I realized, and that thought took my breath away as surely as if I'd been kicked in my stomach (a comparison I'm perfectly qualified to make).**  
**"But...hey..." he said, as if a thought had just occurred to him. "I guess I'll be seeing you at school." Huh? I thought for a second, wondering how a boy could ever get accepted at the Gallagher Academy (especially when Tina Walters swears there's a top secret boys school somewhere in Maine, and every year she petitions my mom to let us take a field trip).**

"I still can't believe she was right, about that..." Elizabeth says  
"I know whenever she would ask me I had to wonder If Cammie found out something she wasn't supposed to know." Rachel says.  
"It was your and Mr. Solomon's fault she found out about Blackthorne in the first place!" Macey says.  
"Good going, geniuses..." Abbey laughs.  
"How is it our fault she found out about it?" I ask  
The three girls look at each other than at me and Rachel and say as if quoting verbatim, "Cammie doesn't know anything." Macey says, "She didn't suspect anything?" Rebbecca says, "we can't tell her, Joe. We can't tell anyone. Not until we have to." Elizabeth says. After that all of them say, "Not about Blackthorne?"  
"Not to mention the fact you walked into Mrs. Morgans office, while Cam was in there, with an envelope labeled Blackthorne." Macey shrugs.

**Then I remembered my legend-I was a normal teenage girl-one he wasn't going to see around the halls of Roseville High, so I shook my head. "I'm not in the public school system." He seemed kind of surprised by this, but then he looked down at my chest. (Not THAT way-I was totally wearing a sweatshirt, remember? Plus, let me tell you, there's not that much to stare at.)**

Cammie's friends, mother, and aunt all roll their eyes

**I glanced down to see the silver cross glistening against my new black sweatshirt. "What...are you homeschooled or something?" he asked, and I nodded. "For what, like, religious reasons?" "Yes," I said, thinking that sounded as good as anything. "Something like that." I took a backward step toward the truck, toward my classmates, toward my home. "I have to go." "Hey!" he cried after me. "It's dark. Let me walk you home-you know-for protection." I'm fairly certain I could have killed him with that pop bottle, so I might have laughed if his offer hadn't been so sweet.**  
**"I'll be fine," I called back to him as I hurried down the sidewalk. "Then for my protection." I couldn't help myself-I laughed as I yelled, "Go back to the carnival!"**

"He probably would need tons of Protection, guy had like no muscles at all. It was pretty sad." Zach says seriously.  
Macey hits him in the side then rolls her eyes.**  
**

** Ten more steps and I would have turned the corner; I would have been free, but then the boy shouted, "Hey, what's your name?" "Cammie!" I don't know what made me say it, but the word was already out there, and I couldn't take it back, so I said again, "My name is Cammie," as if trying the truth on for size. "Hey, Cammie ..." He was taking long, lazy steps, backing away from me, toward the lights and sounds of the festival in full swing. "...tell Suzie she's a lucky cat."**  
**Have sexier words ever been spoken?**

"Yes." Macey says.**  
**

** I seriously think not! **

"You needed my help to even figure out boys! Don't question me!"**  
**

**"I'm Josh, by the way." I started running as I yelled, "Good-bye, Josh." But before the words even reached him, I was gone. The Overnight Express truck was waiting at the end of the alley when I got there, lights off. I felt Mr. Smith's pop bottle in my hand, and for a second I couldn't remember why I would be carrying such a thing. I know. ****I'm almost ashamed of it now-the fact that ten seconds with a boy had driven my mission from my mind. But I did look at it, and I did remember who I was-why I was -and I knew it was time to forget about boys and trash cans and cats named Suzie; I remembered what was real and what was legend. As I pulled open the back door of the truck, I expected to see my classmates sitting there, envying my mission-accomplishing superspy-ness, but all I saw were packages and packages-even the television was gone, and instead of cries of congratulations, I heard the words Tell Suzie she's a lucky cat echoing in my head then growing silent as I realized something was wrong. I spun in the street. ****I looked in the cab of the truck, where a bright orange cap lay on the dashboard, probably where the rightful driver had left it. We had come and gone without a trace, and now all that was left was that bottle and a long run home. I told myself that having to run two miles in wet jeans was just karmic payback for having indulged in both the corn dog and the ice cream,**

"Too many carbs!" Macey says to Rebecca and Elizabeth as if it is an inside joke and they all laugh...**  
**

** but as I reached the edge of town, I wasnt so sure. As I ran, my mind was free. I was back on the street with Josh. I was watching Liz and Bex disappear around a corner with Mr. Smith. I was talking to an old woman about a grandmother I didnt know. ****I was just another girl at the party. The lights of the school cut through the leaves of the trees in the distance as my boots beat a heavy rhythm on the pavement. Damp denim rubbed against my legs. Sweat poured down my back. Mom is always saying that a spy should trust her gut, and right then my gut was telling me ****that I didn't want to go back to the mansion, that I didn't want to be anywhere near Joe Solomon**

"he he..." I say. I feel soooo guilty for what I did, but I had a plan to stop her from being in the field. Not that it worked.  
Everyone looks at me and I realize that none of the girls where in the room (and able to hear) and Zach wasn't even in the picture.**  
**

** and Mr. Smith, and by the time I reached the main gates, I would have given just about anything not to have to go through them. "Big night, Cam?" A stocky man with a buzz cut and a perpetual mouth full of bubble gum appeared at the guardhouse door. He knew my name, but I'd never been introduced to him. If I had, I probably would have called him something other than Bubblegum Guard. But as it was, he was just another guy on the staff who worked for my mom, who probably went on missions with my dad, who knew all the details about my life, while I knew none about his.**

"It's sooo annoying when you meet those agents and they mention different things in your life, and you're all like 'yeah, thanks...Who are you?'"Rebecca says angrily but smiling.

**I suddenly missed my bench in Roseville. I longed for the noisy, anonymous chaos of the square. I started down the driveway, but Bubblegum Guard called out to me, "Hey, Cam, you want a ride?" He gestured toward a ruby red golf cart that sat behind the guardhouse. "No, thanks." I shook my head. "Good night." I'm sorry I don't know your name. When I reached the main foyer, I started for the stairs. I wanted a shower. I wanted my bed. I wanted to shake free of the uneasy feeling that had settled in my gut from the moment I saw that orange cap lying on the dashboard- abandoned. I had the bottle in my hands, but somehow I knew that wasn't really the point.**  
**Then I heard footsteps and a cry of "Wait!" as Mr. Mosckowitz rushed after me. "Hi, Mr. M. Great driving tonight," I said. I remembered that it had been his first mission, too. Something important must have made him chase me down, but for a second his features shifted. He actually glowed (but not like the time he tested that flame-retardant skin gel for Dr. Fibs). "You think?" he asked. "Because, well, at that second stop sign, I think I might have hesitated a little too long. Forty-eight hours or less," he said, with a punch at the air, "that's the Overnight Express motto; I just don't think a real driver would have waited so long."**

"Well it is important to look like you belong at all times. well that's what Cammie told me at least but I think she is right because people realize-" "LIZ!" "Sorry..."**  
**

** "Oh." I gave him a nod. "I thought it was just right-nothing causes delays like an accident, you know." His face brightened again. "You think?" "It was perfect." I turned again and started up the stairs, but Mr. Mosckowitz said, "Oh, gee, wait. I was supposed to tell you..." He paused, and I imagined him churning through the gigabytes of his brain. "... that you are supposed to go to the CoveOps class for a debrief." Of course I am, I thought as I gripped the bottle. Of course it isn't over. As the optical scanners swept over my face I heard Mr. Mosckowitz ask, "So, hey, Cammie, it was fun. Wasn't it?" And I realized that one of the most brilliant men in the world needed me to verify that he'd had fun. This place never ceases to amaze me.**

"Me neither..." The three girls said in unison. And I couldn't agree more.**  
**


	10. Chapter 8

**Wow I'm kinda on a role now...Hehe. So anyway like I have promised I will try to keep this story going till they read the last parts of the fourth book. so yeah. Anyway everyone has read once so now I am going to choose random people to read. I decided that Bex was going to read this one.  
**

**Disclaimer: If you have even thought that I was/am Ally Carter than you seriously overestimate my writing abilities. I am never going to be as good of a writer as Ally is.  
**

**Someone asked me in a review if Bex and Liz didnt know what had happened. Well my answer is that I don't think Solomon let them see or hear what was happening otherwise they would have gone to Cammie's aid right away.  
**

**on with the STORY!  
**

* * *

*********Bex's POV*******  
**

"Before we continue to read this I just want to say that I have a very valid reason for doing what I did." Mr. Solomon says.  
I look at him in confusion until I realize that after we came back from the classroom Cam looked pretty shaken up and...scared. This must have been worse than I thought.**  
**

**Sublevel One was dark as I got out of the elevator. I followed the maze of frosted glass through the light of emergency exit signs and the flickering computer screens. I passed a library filled with facts too sensitive for a seventh grader to know. I walked along a balcony that overlooks a massive three-story room the size of a gymnasium that comes complete with movable walls and fake people, so Bex and I call it the dollhouse-it's where spies come to play.**

I nod my head, smirk and turn to give my best friend a high-five, but my shoulders fall in despair as I remember, yet again, that she isn't here.

** As I got closer to the classroom, the hallway got brighter, and soon I was looking through one wall of illuminated glass at the silhouettes of my classmates. No one was talking. Not Mr. Solomon. Not any of the girls. I crept toward the open door-saw my classmates in their usual seats and Mr. Solomon perched on a low bookcase at the back of the room, his hands gripping the dark wood as he leaned casually back. I stood there for a long time, not knowing what to do. Finally, I said, "I got the bottle. " But Joe Solomon didn't smile. He didn't say "well done. " He didn't even look at me as he leaned against that bookcase, staring at the white tiles on the floor. "Come in, Ms. Morgan, " he said softly. "We've been expecting you. "**

"I feel regret no, but I had thought it was for the best..."  
"Joe I am sick of this mysterious commenting! What did you do!" Abby turns to Mr. Solomon  
"You'll see."

** I headed for my desk on the far side of the room, and then I saw them-the two empty chairs. I searched for the eyes of my classmates, but not one of them looked back. "They should be back by ... " I began, but just then Mr. Solomon picked up a remote control and punched a button, and the room went dark except for a long sliver of light that shone from a projector beside him. I was standing in the center of its path, silhouetted against the image glowing on a screen. In the picture, Bex was sitting on the wall in front of the Roseville library. Then I heard a click and the image changed. I saw Liz peeking around a tree, which is really bad form, but Mr. Solomon didn't comment. His silence seemed totally worse. **

Liz shrugged, "Opsie-Daisy! I guess I was right when I sad I'm better on the Research track." She laughed, and I joined in with her. To be honnest, none of us will ever be good at blending in like Cammie was...IS IS IS! I have to believe in her. I know she will come back, she would never leave me or Liz or Macey and especially not her mom.

**Another click. Bex was looking over her shoulder, crossing a street. Click. Liz was next to a funnel-cake stand. "Ask the question, Ms. Morgan, " he said, his voice carrying ominously through the dark room. "Don't you want to know where they are?"**

Zach turned to Solomon, "You didn't."  
"I'm afraid I did, Zach."  
"Will someone tell me what the Bloody hell is going on here!" I exclaim.  
"Even though her language could be fixed I agree with Rebecca, what is going on?"

** I did want to know, but I was almost afraid to hear the answer. More images flashed on the screen, surveillance photos taken by a well-trained, well-placed team. Bex and Liz hadn't known they were there-I hadn't known they were there-and yet someone had stalked our every step. I felt like prey. "Ask me why they're not here, " Mr. Solomon demanded. I saw his dim outline. His arms were crossed. "You want to be a spy, don't you, Chameleon?" My code name was nothing more than a mockery on his lips. **

"You didn't just make fun over her codename did you! We all know that Cammie is a Chameleon through and through!" Macey outbursts. "You have no right to discourage her!"  
"That was your plan...wasn't it..." Abby whispers, "To discourage her so she would chose the Research track over CoveOps? To keep her safe?"  
"Yes."  
"You should have known that would never work...she's too much like Matt to ever chose anything other than the life of a live operative."  
"I know."

**"Now tell me what happens to spies who get made. " No, I thought. Another click. Is that Bex? Of course it wasn't-she was with Mr. Smith; she was safe, but I couldn't help but stare at the dark, gritty image on the screen-the bloody, swollen face that stared back at me-and tremble for my friend.**

"You showed her photo shopped photo's of her best friends being tortured!? That is an all time low!" Mrs. Morgan half yells half whispers.

** "They won't start with Bex, you know, " he went on. "They'll start with Liz. " Another click and then I was looking at a pair of thin arms bound behind a chair and a cascade of bloody blond hair.**

Lizzie starts to shake and I assume it is because she is hearing that she is being tortured so I try and comfort her. "No Bex. think of how this is affecting Cammie, she will never be able to forget those photo's even though they are fake!"**  
**

** "These people are very good at what they do. They know Bex can take the punches; what hurts Bex most is listening to her friend scream. " **

"You're right Mr. Solomon." I whisper lightly, "Hearing Liz scream would break me more than if someone hit me." It is kinda scary how he would now that, but then I guess he knows my parents so he would know about me.**  
**

**The projector's light was warm as it danced across my skin. He was moving closer. I saw his shadow join mine on the screen. "And she is screaming-she will be for about six hours, until she becomes so dehydrated she can't form sounds. " My gaze was going blurry; my knees were weak. Terror was pounding in my ears so loudly that I barely heard him when he whispered, "And then they start on Bex. " Another click. "They have special things in mind for her. " I'm going to be sick, I thought, unable to look him in the eye. "This is what you're signing up for. " He forced me to face the image. "Look at what is happening to your friends!" "Stop it!" I yelled. "Stop it. " And then I dropped the bottle. The neck snapped, shattering, sending shards of glass across the floor. "You lost two-thirds of your team. Your friends are gone. " "No, " I said again. "Stop. " "No, Ms. Morgan, once this starts-it doesn't stop. " My face was hot and my eyes were swollen. "It never stops. " And it doesn't. He was right and I knew it all too well.**

"Even though I think this is absolutely wrong, what your doing Joe, but I do agree. Once you start down the path of a spy your stuck on it." Zach comments. I can tell he is hiding anger at Mr. Solomon. He seems to be the only one that is hiding it. **  
**

** I sensed, rather than saw, Mr. Solomon turn to the class and ask, "Who wants to be a spy now?" No one raised a hand. No one spoke. We weren't supposed to. "Next semester, ladies, Covert Operations will be an optional field of study, but this semester, it's mandatory. No one gets to back out now because they're scared. But you won't ever be as scared as you are right now-not this semester. On that you have my word. "**

"At least his word was true...I mean your word was true, oh you know what I mean!" Liz flusters out. And I roll my eyes**  
**

** The overhead lights came on, and twelve girls squinted against the sudden glare. Mr. Solomon moved toward the door, but stopped. "And ladies, if you aren't scared right now, we don't want you anyway. " He slid aside a glass partition, revealing Bex and Liz, who sat behind it, unharmed. Then he walked away. We sat in silence for a long time, listening to his footsteps fade. Up in our room, we were greeted by a pile of clothes and accessories that had seemed so important at the start of our night-but seemed so insignificant now. Macey was asleep-or pretending to be-I didn't care. **

"Pretending, I heard your footsteps down the hall and I wanted to hear what had happened." Macey admits.**  
**

**She had a pair of those really expensive Bose sound-eliminating headphones (probably so she wouldn't be kept awake by the sound of air whizzing past her nose ring),**

"I could still hear you guys though." Macey comments

** so Bex and Liz and I could have talked or screamed. But we didn't. Even Bex had lost her swagger, and that was maybe the scariest thing of all. I wanted her to crack a joke. I wanted her to reenact everything Smith had said on their long walk home. I wanted Bex to call out for the spotlight so that our room wouldn't be so dark. But instead, we sat in silence until I couldn't take it anymore. "Guys, I-" I started, needing to say I was sorry, but Bex stopped me. "You did what I would have done, " **

"And I would have." I say with no doubt.  
"Me too!" Liz says  
"Me three!" Macey agrees.**  
**

**she said, then looked at Liz. "Me, too, " Liz agreed. "Yeah, but... " I wanted to say something else, but what, I didn't know. In her bed, Macey rolled over, but she didn't open her eyes. I looked at the clock and realized it was almost one in the morning. "Was Smith mad?" I asked after a long time. Liz was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, so Bex was the one who answered, "I don't think so. He's probably having a good laugh about it now, don't you think?" "Maybe, " I said. I pulled on my pajamas. "He said he never even saw you, though,"**

"Really?" Abby asks  
"Yeah he was all like, 'Why were you two alone! Where was your backup!' and Liz was all like, "It wasn't just the two of us! and we did have backup! Cammie was out there too and the Sophomore class!" "Ms. Morgan was there? I doubt that I didn't see her." and yeah it was shocking but supper cool to know that he didn't see her." I say.**  
**

** Bex said, as if she'd just remembered. Liz came in and added, "Yeah, Cammie, he was really impressed when he heard you'd been out there. Like, really impressed. " I felt something cold against my chest, so I reached up to feel the tiny silver cross still dangling around my neck, and I remembered that someone had seen me. Until then, the boy on the street had faded almost completely from my mind. "So, " Liz asked, "what happened with you after we left?" I fingered the cross, but said, "Nothing. " I don't know why I didn't tell them about Josh. **

"Oh you guys made it significan't." Macey laughs dryly. "Looking through his trash, staking out his house..."  
"Spoilers!" Liz shouts than realizes that she was there and laughs lightly.

**I mean, it should have been significant-a random civilian initiating contact during an operation-that's the kind of thing you totally tell your superiors, let alone your best friends. But I kept it to myself-maybe because I didn't think it mattered, but probably because, in a place where everyone knew my story, it was nice to know there was a chapter that only I had read.**

"That's the End."I say and hand the book to Liz, I am shocked to say the least that this is what had shaken Cammie up so badly, Why didn't she tell us?**  
**Maybe she has kept more things from us than we had thought...

* * *

**I know there is not that much dialogue but it is a short chapter.  
**

**Okay... Now REVIEW! I know that only Awesome people Review! so get to it! :) **

**Tell me if you love it, hate it, want it to be better...  
**

**-XSoftballxIsxMyxLifeX  
**


	11. Chapter 9

**Sorry! My computer died and I can't use it! (This is my parents computer) and then something terrible happened in my house and issues piled ontop of eachother and I haven't been able to update. But no fear I will not give up on this story! **

* * *

**Culture and Assimilation isn't like our other classes, **

"Definitely not" Macey says. And I have agree with her. No I don't hate it! I love all my classes! But this one is different.

**so I guess that's why Madame Dabney's tea room isn't like our other classrooms.**

"It is not, at all." Bex says.**  
**"No, but I love the room, it is so pretty." I say. I do love the room, its kinda the only thing in our school that makes it seem like we are girls.

** French silk lines the walls. The lighting fixtures are crystal. Everything in that room is beautiful and refined and reminds us that we don't just have to be spies- we have to be ladies.**

See, Cammie agrees with me.  
"No, Gallagher Girls have to be much more than that." Headmistress Morgan says.  
"That we do." Abby agrees nodding her head, "And sometimes that includes having to dress up like a boy." She looks pointedly at Mrs. Morgan.  
"That was one time!"

** Sometimes I hate it and spend hours thinking what a waste it is to teach us things like calligraphy and needlepoint (aside from the obvious coded message usages, of course). But other times I love listening to Madame Dabney as she floats through the room with a monogrammed handkerchief in her hand, talking about what flowers are in season or the history of the waltz. The day after our first mission was one of those days. I might have blown the mission, but I was still a whiz at setting tables, so I was actually sad to hear Madame Dabney say, "Oh, dear, girls, look at the time. " I didn't want to put away the good china. I didn't want to go downstairs and face Mr. Solomon again.**

Mr. Solomon looks a little ashamed, but he should be! What he did to Cammie was hard on her.

** "But before you leave today, girls, " Madame Dabney said in an expectant, excited tone that held my attention, "I have an announcement to make!" The sounds of clattering china all but ceased as everyone took Madame Dabney in. "It's time for you to expand your education here at the Gallagher Academy, so... " She adjusted her glasses. "... Beginning today after school, I am going to be teaching Driver's Ed!" Oh my gosh! I'd completely forgotten about Driver's Ed! Sure, we're allowed to toss each other over our shoulders or concoct antidotes for rare poisons for extra credit,**

"Really?" I ask. "Cause I've been trying to earn extra credit for some classes."  
"Liz, you have 100% in all your classes." Zach says to me.  
"No, I lost 0.01% in Countries of the World because I missed putting on the date." I start to ramble about why I didn't put the date on when I notice my friends all face palm and I just trail off and start the book again.

** but when it comes to tricky stuff like adjusting rearview mirrors and knowing who has the right-of-way at four-way stops, the Gallagher Trustees don't take any chances. Plus, there's that whole discount-on-your-car-insurance thing to consider. Madame Dabney said, "We'll be going out in groups of four-by suite. " She consulted a piece of paper then looked directly toward Liz, Bex, and me. "Beginning with the four of you. " Liz looked at Bex and me, not understanding. "Four?" **

"Yes Liz, Four!" Macey says to me like I'm four.  
"Hey! In my defense you were still new and I didn't remember you!"

**she whispered, just as a light seemed to dawn, and from the back of the room we heard Macey say, "Sounds like fun. "**

"Not once have I ever heard as much sarcasm in one sentence as I had there" Bex says teasingly and I laugh.

** (Do I really need to say she was being sarcastic?) That afternoon, we strolled down the steps of the rear portico and toward the motor pool, where an old Ford Taurus was waiting for us, its yellow STUDENT DRIVER triangle gleaming in the sun. Mom tells me Madame Dabney spent most of her career in deep cover, working the underground Nazi cells that remained active in France after World War II, but at times like this I have a really hard time believing her-especially when the woman in question shows up wearing a Give Safety a Brake! T-shirt.**

All of the kids laughed at that. The adults looked somewhat happy that we all weren't unable to function without Cammie. What they don't realize is that none of us have gotten a single minute of sleep since Cammie has been gone- no not gone, she ran away. Not gone. She will be back, she has to! Won't she?

** "Ooooh, girls! This is going to be such a delight!" she said, and then proceeded to do things like point to the brake and say, "That makes the car stop, " and the accelerator, "That makes the car go. "**

"Thank you Captain Obvious!" Zach says sarcastically  
"Glad to be of service Sargent Sarcasm." Bex responds  
"You are one weird girl Baxter."  
"You're one weird thing Goode."  
"'Thing!?'"  
"Yes."

** But the craziest thing of all was that Liz was taking notes. She has a photographic memory! She joined Mensa at the age of eight! And yet she felt compelled to draw a diagram of the steering column and note exactly which button turned on the windshield wipers. "Be sure you write down that the steering wheel is round, "**

"That was so funny! I can't believe you actually started writing it down" Macey says to me.  
"That was mean of Cameron to do to you Elizabeth." Mrs. Morgan said.  
"It's fine."

** I said, and she seriously had the W-H-E of wheel written in her little notebook before she realized I was joking. "Cammie, don't make fun, " Liz said, the way she always did. But just then, Macey mocked, "Yeah, Cammie, don't make fun. " Even Liz wanted to deck her. **

"Well I'm sorry I'm not nice enough to hang around. I see how it is." Macey says and she gets up and starts walking to the door. I get up run and tackle her to the floor.  
"No Macey! We love you! You're our sister!"  
"Geez Lizzie, I was kidding!"  
"Oh." I get up dust myself off and walk back to the book like I didn't just do that.

**"Now, girls, " Madame Dabney said, "let's focus. " She drew her hands into a position of prayer as she turned to Bex. "Rebecca, dear, how do you feel about starting us out?" **

"NO!" I yelped.  
"What?" Abby asked me.  
"Ops sorry, I got too caught up in this, forgot it already happened."  
"Alrighty then"

**I gasped. Don't get me wrong; I love Bex. She's my best friend.**

"Awww! Thanks Cammie!" Bex says and starts bowing and waving to an imaginary crowd.  
"Sit down you weirdo!" Macey yells and pulls Bex back onto the floor.

** But I've been driving since I could see over the wheel and work the pedals at the same time (something Grandpa Morgan swears is a milestone in every farm kid's life), so why should Bex, a native Londoner who spent her formative years riding the Tube and waving down taxis, be the first to tackle Highway 10? I consoled myself by thinking that Bex is my best friend, and she is good at everything, or so I thought until she pulled out onto the highway ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!**

"That is why, Rebecca you should always let an 'American' go first" Zach says.  
"Was that supposed to be an insult?!" Bex asks  
"Mayyyybbbbeeeeeee..." Zach says all cryptic like.

** Now all this might have been funny except there's a hill there-did I mention that? A great big can't-see-the-semi-until-it's-about-to-hit-you- head-on hill. But I was the only one who noticed, because Madame Dabney was writing on her clipboard, Liz was doing bio-chem homework, and Macey was having a fingernail emergency. I tried to yell, but I must have temporarily lost the power of speech, and Bex was the only other person paying attention to the road, and she thought she was on the right side of it-or left side-or whatever (you get what I mean). My voice returned just in time for me to yell "BEX!" and she said, "What?"**

"what do you mean 'What?'! You just about killed us!" Macey says.  
"But, I didn't," Bex says seriously  
"But you almost did!"  
"Key word_ almost." _

** turning and sending us swerving into the other lane, which under normal circumstances would have been disastrous, but in this case really saved our lives. Fate is tricky that way-something I guess every spy figures out eventually. Then Bex calmly righted the car and headed into town, completely unfazed. When Bex hung a left at the Piggly Wiggly and nearly took out a crossing guard from Roseville Elementary School,**

"Very creative name." Zach says sarcastically.  
"Are you ever not sarcastic?" I ask him.  
"Spy."  
"Ugggg!"

** Madame Dabney made her pull into the grocery store parking lot and trade places with Macey.**

"SAFETY!" Macey screams.  
"Hey! I am not that bad of a driver! Right Lizzie?"  
"Ummmm..."

** But Bex didn't seem mad, which in itself was a little scary. Instead, she had a really pleased look on her face as she opened my door and made me push Liz into the seat Macey was vacating, which was harder than it sounds, since Liz had become kind of... Oh, what's the word?... Petrified.**

"Thanks Liz." Bex says with a fake sad-sarcastic voice

** Madame Dabney had obviously learned her lesson with Bex, because there were lots of Easy on the accelerator, dears and Okay, there's a stop sign over there, darlings coming from the front seat as Macey eased onto the streets. Things were starting to get pretty calm. I mean, really, it was almost nice, being driven around, sitting between my two best friends in the world, feeling the sun beam through the windows. It was almost normal-or as close to normal as three geniuses, a cosmetics heiress-slash-senator's daughter, and a secret agent in a Ford Taurus can ever be. Nestled in the backseat between Liz and Bex, I started thinking that it would have been way too much to ask for us to have a tour of the town before we were supposed to tail one of the most wanted men in the world through it. Oh, yeah, that would have been a totally unfair advantage. In the daylight, I could see thousands of hiding places where a girl could linger unseen. I recognized alleys and side streets that would have been great shortcuts. I started, despite everything, to want a rematch with Mr. Smith. But mostly, I wondered about the boy I'd seen. Was he real? Did he really walk these streets? Then, I got my answer. "What the bloody hell are you doing down there?" Bex asked. "Looking for my contacts, "**

"Decent excuse...however with these girls..." Mr. Solomon says going all teacher spy on us.

** I snapped back. "You have twenty-twenty vision, " Liz reminded me.**

"...They know you too much, and with a enemy, that will be your downfall" Solomon reminded us.  
"Yes but we are not enemies to her..." Macey says like he has gone crazy.  
"But say one of you were, it could lead to a disaster."  
"I don't know if you noticed, but umm...WE ARE IN A DISASTER!" Bex kinda shouts, pointing to Cammie's unmade bed.  
Everyone falls silent.

** "It's just... I just... I can't look up right now. " I knew the car was stopped, probably at a traffic light- one of only two in the town, so Josh had to be getting close. "What?" Bex asked in a whisper. "What's going on?" She shifted into spy-mode, sat up, and looked around. "There's nothing out there. Oh, well, you are missing a real hottie at three o'clock. " **

"Jimmie and hottie should not be used in the same sentence together. Ever." Zach says  
"Is someone a bit jealous?" I ask  
"What- me jealous-psh-no!" He stutters  
"Suuuuurrrrreeeeee Zachary." Macey says.

**Liz craned her neck around to look. "Ooh, yeah, he's pretty skinny but worth checking out. " Then she shrugged and said, "Oh. Never mind. He's giving us the Gallagher Glare. " I have no idea who came up with that name, but it's what we always call the look that people in town give us whenever they figure out where we go to school. It's the only time I ever hate our cover story-when people look at me as if I must be privileged, as if I must be spoiled. As if I must be like Macey McHenry. **

"Hey!" Macey complains.

**I want to tell them that I spent my summer cleaning fish and canning vegetables-but that's just one of a thousand things that the good people of Roseville will never know about me. Still, when people like Josh look at you like you're a cross between Charles Manson and Paris Hilton, it hurts a little-even for a spy. "Yeah, but he's still a boy, " Bex said longingly. "Hey, Cam, come take a peek. " "I am not going to look at some boy!" I snapped. "I don't care how wavy his hair is. " **

"Busted." Abby  
"Mistake" Macey  
"Slip-up" Mrs. Morgan  
"Dangerous" Solomon.  
"Okay we get it! Cammie slipped up!" Zach says annoyed  
"Read Lizzie."

**"Who said anything about wavy hair?" Oh, Bex is good.**

"Yes, yes I am."  
"Modest much?"

** "I can't believe this!" Liz said, pacing. She hadn't sat down once since we got back to the mansion-she just kept going back and forth-trying to make sense of it all. I couldn't really blame her. Liz's belief system is pretty natural for scientific geniuses. She wants life to be something that can be tested in a lab or referenced in a book. She'd thought she'd known me. I'd thought I'd known myself. Now both of our hypotheses had been thrown out the window, and we hated to start from scratch. I couldn't let her see how shaken I was, so I did the next best thing: I got angry. "Exactly what is so unbelievable?" I asked. "That a boy looked at me?" Sure, I'd never be an exotic beauty like Bex or a pixyish waif like Liz, but I had yet to grow boils all over my body. Mirrors don't crack when I walk by them. My Grandfather calls me Angel. Was I that unworthy of being noticed? **

"So what if what is she doesn't look like Bex, or Liz, or Macey! She looks like Cammie and that is why I love her!"  
"You love her?" Macey asks.  
"I think I do."  
"Awwwww!" Macey says with a sad smile, and she hugs him. A comforting sisterly hug and Bex and I join in. It's so cute and Cammie is so lucky to have a guy like Zach in her life. She need him and he needs her. It's adorable

**"Cam!" Bex ordered. "Of course that's not it. " Liz threw her hands into the air and said, "I can't believe you didn't tell us! I can't believe you didn't tell someone. " Liz's definition of someone didn't mean someone. Liz's someone meant a teacher. "So what?" I said, trying to brush the whole thing aside. "So what?" Liz said. "So, he saw you! Cammie, no one sees you when you don't want to be seen. " She eased onto the bed beside me. "When we were trailing Smith and I had to keep you in sight, it was almost impossible, and I could hear you through the comms unit. And I knew what you were wearing. And ... " She threw her hands into the air. "So what?" I turned to look at Bex, my eyebrows raised as if to ask Are you freaked out, too? "You really are amazing, Cam, " **

"She is, that is why I was concerned. I thought something was wrong, that maybe he was an enemy agent." Bex says and I nod my head. Cammie is pretty and amazing, and we were just concerned for her safety.

**Bex said in a perfectly serious tone, so I knew it must be true. "Something isn't right, here, " Liz said as I went into the bathroom and started brushing my teeth. (It's hard to say things that will do lasting damage to a lifelong friendship when you're foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog. ) "Mr. Solomon wants summaries of our mission, so we've got to include him.**

"Which. You. Did. Not." Mr. Solomon says disapprovingly.

** He could very well be trying to infiltrate the school through Cammie. He could be a honeypot!" I nearly gagged on my own toothbrush. The technical definition of a honeypot is a female agent using romance to compromise a target. The practical definition is anyone with cleavage. (Rumor has it Gilly kind of inspired the term. ) The thought that Josh could be the male equivalent made my stomach flip. "No!" I cried. "No. No. No. He is not a honeypot. " "How do you know?" Bex asked, playing devil's advocate. "I just do!" I replied. But Liz was shrugging, saying, "We've got to include him in the reports, Cam. " But reports lead to reviews. Reviews lead to protocol. Protocol would lead to two weeks of the security department tailing him through town while they track down his birth certificate and find out if his mom drinks or his dad gambles-they've done far more for fewer reasons. After all, the Gallagher Academy hasn't remained a well-kept secret for more than a hundred years by taking chances. I thought about Josh, how sweet and normal he had seemed. I didn't want strangers looking at him beneath a microscope. I didn't want there to be a file in Langley with his name on it. But mostly, I didn't want to sit in a room and explain why he'd approached me, when the town square had been full of far prettier girls. I looked down at the floor, shaking off the thought. "No, Liz, I can't do it. That is way too high a price to pay for talking to a girl. " Then Bex crossed her arms and grinned deviously in my direction. "I think there's something more to this story, " she said with her usual flair. The rush of blood to my cheeks must have been enough to betray me, because she leaned down and said, "Spill it. " So I told them about the trash can and the dropped Dr Pepper bottle and, finally, Tell Suzie she's a lucky cat, which, even if it hadn't been for the whole genius thing, I still would have been able to remember verbatim, because sentences like that are like peanut butter on a girl's mind. When I finished, Bex was staring at me as if she wondered whether or not I had been replaced by a genetically engineered clone, and Liz had a starry-eyed gaze very similar to the one Snow White wore while those birds fluttered above her head. "What?"**

"Sounds like I could snap his neck." Zach says and I laugh. That is exactly what Bex said.

** I asked, needing them to say something-anything. "Sounds like I couldsnap his neck with one hand, "**

Everyone laughs this time. I mean everyone.

** Bex said, and she was probably right. "But if you go in for that sort of thing... " "... He's amazing, " Liz finished for her. "It doesn't matter what he is or isn't. He's... " I struggled. Liz shot upright and finished for me. "... Still got to go in the reports!" "Liz!" I cried, but Bex's hand was on my arm. "Why don't we do it?" Her most devious expression flashed across her face. "We'll check him out, and if he's an ordinary boy, we forget about it. If something's strange, we'll turn him in. "**

"How many times have you girls kept something this big from us?" Mrs. Morgan asks  
"Not too many..." Bex says

** I knew instantly what the arguments against it should have been: we were too busy; it was against about a million rules; if we got caught, we could be risking our careers forever. But in the silence of the room, we looked at each other, our mutual agreement settling down upon us in the way of people who have known each other too well and too long. "Okay, " I said finally. "We'll do the basics, and no one has to know. " Bex smiled. "Agreed. " We both looked at Liz, who shrugged. "Let's face it-he's either an enemy agent trying to infiltrate the Gallagher Girls through Cammie ... " Liz stopped midsentence, prompting me to say, "Or... ?" Her entire face lit up. "He's your soul mate. "**

Zach snorts. "Soul mate...yea right."  
"Jeaaalllooouuusss..." Macey sings.  
"Let's just go get dinner."  
"Whatever you say Mr. Jealous."  
"Ugggg!" I laugh and follow my ridiculous friends out the door.  
When I notice Mrs. Morgan isn't with us I turn around and can just barely see her sitting on Cammie's bed hugging the book to her chest. One single tear falls down her cheek.  
I just about want to run in there and give her a hug when Abby puts a hand on my shoulder. "Let her be. She wants everyone to believe that she is a strong person, but she sometimes needs to cry. At times we all do. Cammie is all she really has left of Matthew and if she lost her...If I lost her..." Abby can't finish the sentence.  
I give her a hug and then we walk down the hall. "Your a intelligent young lady, Liz. Don't let anyone change that. And don't stop believing in Cammie. She will com home to us. To you."  
_Cammie please come home. we all need you. _

* * *

**That's the end of that chapter. Hope it wasn't too OOC or sappy. Alright Review! You know you want to! :)**

**-XSoftballxIsxMyxLifeX **


End file.
